When was 3 gorges dam built

The swell of water caused by upstream flooding reached 55, cubic meters per second late last week, exceeding the official warning level of 50, cubic meters. The emergency discharges have inevitably exacerbated flooding in areas downstream from the dam. Massive flooding along the Yangtze is nothing new for China. In , more than 3 million people died during a huge flood in one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century.

Nevertheless, the current situation is the first major test that the Three Gorges Dam has been put to. There is no reason to think that the structure of the dam itself is under threat. Indeed, the dam was designed to help cope with floods along the Yangtze. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that the Chinese government is monitoring the situation nervously, hoping that the emergency will soon pass.

The Three Gorges Dam has been a major showcase project for China. View the discussion thread. A nervous watch on the Three Gorges Dam. Peter McCawley. Related Content. In beef over barley, Chinese economic coercion cuts against the grain. Show Comments View the discussion thread. Next Article Interesting times for TikTok. There were many reasons for building the dam due to its history and other causes.

This article will investigate some of these. The Three gorges dam was built across the Yangtze River to control the amount of water allowed through. This created a massive artificial lake which has become an international tourist attraction. The construction of a dam on the Yangtze River had been considered since , but the Civil war and Cultural Revolution delayed the project until fairly recently. One of the main reasons that the Three Gorges dam was built was to prevent flooding further downstream.

The need for a dam was highlighted in when people were killed as a result of flooding of the Yangtze River. Another reason why the Three Gorges Dam was constructed was to generate electricity.

There are several generators within the dam which use the potential energy stored in the water, to generate electricity. The dam has been designed to impact the environment as little as possible. It has meant that some ancient artifacts were lost, or are no longer accessible.

However, it is stated that the impact on the environment is very small. We have been advised that the passengers' ships should dock at Maoping port west of Three Gorges Dam and can not pass the dam lock since the beginning of The Three Gorges Dam Project, which is the world largest water and power project, was kicked off on December 14, The total construction period will be 17 years.

Sandouping, 7 km from the entrance of Xiling Gorge at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, was selected as the site of the Three Gorges Dam in The river here is much bigger than it is in other area. There is a small island named Zhongbaodao in the middle of this part of the river.

It is the best choice of the site for the dam. The planning of the project was started in The actual building of the Dam started on 14 Dec.

ZhongbaoIsland was used to build dyke A to dam the river water and to connect the right bank with the other dyke. In order to build the main part of the Dam and the diversion channel afterwards, foundation work B and foundation work C which is long and thin were built in the dry riverbed. At the same time, channel construction such as Lock D started. Click for more details.

The Three Gorges Project is designed with a concrete gravity dam with a crest elevation of meters and maximum height of meters. The dam axis runs 2, The meter spillway, located in the middle of the main dam, has 23 bottom outlets dimensioned at 79 meters. Each of its 22 surface sluice gates measures 8 meters wide. The maximum discharge capacity of the TGP is , cubic meters, the biggest in the world. Two powerhouses, flanking the spillway, accommodate altogether 26 sets of turbine-generators.

As the world's biggest unit ever made, each has a generating capacity of MW. The A report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the supply gap was likely to be about m tons by the end of The Chinese leader toured Anhui province this week, another badly hit area where floods had eased slightly. The Chinese nation has fought natural disasters for thousands of years … We will continue to fight. This article is more than 1 year old. China floods: , evacuated as waters reach Giant Buddha statue.

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