What are 3 negative effects of the Three Gorges Dam?
Dam construction has played significant roles in flood control, irrigation, navigation, and energy supply; however, the enormous negative effects, such as landslides, ecological problems, and water quality decline, could surpass positive gains.
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It also affects the wildlife and ecosystem of the areas near its location, and that's not the end of it. The Three Gorges Dam is claimed to be slowing the Earth's rotation! The huge capacity of the dam can hold 42 billion tons of water at maximum. NASA scientists believe that this shift has an impact on Earth.
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.
When the dam is completed, 13 cities, 140 towns and over 1,300 villages will be submerged by the Three Gorges Reservoir. 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.
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.
Key problems included the danger of dam collapse, the displacement of some 1.3 million people (critics insisted the figure was actually 1.9 million) living in more than 1,500 cities, towns, and villages along the river, and the destruction of magnificent scenery and countless rare architectural and archaeological sites ...
Despite the havoc, Chinese authorities claim the Three Gorges Dam has succeeded in playing a “crucial role” in intercepting floodwaters. The dam's operator, China Three Gorges Corporation, told China's state news agency Xinhua that the dam has intercepted 18.2 billion cubic meters of potential floodwater.