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Yangtze River - 1995

Yangtze River - 1995

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-18 21:30:25

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(350 billion cubic feet)of rock and earth and the displacement of over 1 million people from the 60,000hectares of land which will gradually be flooded by the resulting 640-kilometre (397-mile) long reservoir.
The dam is located near the mouth of the lowest of the Three Gorges, where the current was divided in two by an island. In November l997, the first stage was completed with the blocking of two-thirds of the river's width. The waterleaves had risen l8 metres (59 feet) by the end of l998, will rise a further 52 metres (171 feet) by 2003, 30 metres (98 feet) more up to 2009, and a final ten metres (33 feet) that year, when the dam will come into operation. Smaller ships will use a single stage lift, and larger ones a stair of five locks. The waters in the Three Gorges will rise a total of l l0 metres (36l feet), gradually changing the scenery forever.

The chief justifications offered for so much dislocation and destruction are twofold: the production of l8,200 megawatts of electricity, and the ending of frequently disastrous flooding of cities and farmland along the Yangtze. For centuries China's rivers have been a source both of immense fertility and massive destruction. Silt--Iaden, they can change course abruptly, and need ever higher levees to Testrain them. In heavy rains they burst through, often with great loss of life. ln restraining the river the Communists are again trying to take their place in history--figures who were even partially successful in flood control for the emperors are so revered as to have joined the Daoist (Taoist) pantheon.

Already the experience of passing through the gorges is changing. Gradual1y, the narrow ribbons of paths will disappear, and many temples and pagodas are reappearing on higher ground, some escaping from tactless development around them. In some ways the scenery will actually improve--several dark, Satanic concrete factories and mills will disappear below the waters as willbrutally ...