How does the Three Gorges Dam affect human life?

To make way for the Three Gorges Dam, 1.5 million people will have to abandon their homes. More than 160,000 citizens have already been relocated. Upon the dam's completion, 1,300 known archeological sites will be lost forever under water. Over 265 billion gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the Yangtze annually.



People Also Ask

One of the most controversial aspects of the mega-project was its enormous cost for villagers who had lived for centuries on the banks of the river. To make way for the dam's massive reservoir, about 1.4 million people were uprooted, their ancestral homes demolished, communities broken up and farmlands flooded.

MORE DETAILS

The most important effect that the construction of the Three Gorges Dam has had on Chinese society has been the displacement of millions of people from the Yangtze river region. In order to establish the reservoir, hundreds (possible thousands) of towns and villages were evacuated and later submerged.

MORE DETAILS

To make way for the Three Gorges Dam, 1.5 million people will have to abandon their homes. More than 160,000 citizens have already been relocated. Upon the dam's completion, 1,300 known archeological sites will be lost forever under water. Over 265 billion gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the Yangtze annually.

MORE DETAILS

Moreover, a couple of other studies demonstrated that the construction of the TGD had an adverse effect on agricultural environment, including the agricultural water and the land resources [14,27,30]. However, on the other hand, its effective flood control function is able to reduce the scale and frequency of flooding.

MORE DETAILS

Nonetheless, the Three Gorges Dam has had some huge negative social impacts. Over 1.2 million people were required to leave their homes as they were going to be inundated by the dam's reservoir. The people who refused to leave were forcibly removed from their homes.

MORE DETAILS

Chinese officials staged a sudden about-face, acknowledging for the first time that the massive hydroelectric dam, sandwiched between breathtaking cliffs on the Yangtze River in central China, may be triggering landslides, altering entire ecosystems and causing other serious environmental problems—and, by extension, ...

MORE DETAILS

While the construction of the Three Gorges Dam was an engineering feat, it has also been fraught with controversy: construction of the dam caused the displacement of at least 1.3 million people and the destruction of natural features and countless rare architectural and archaeological sites.

MORE DETAILS

6. The flow of silt into the reservoir is a recognised problem which has badly affected other major hydroelectric projects in China. This has been addressed partly by reafforestation in the upper reaches of the river, but could still significantly shorten the dam's expected lifespan of 50 years.

MORE DETAILS