No doubt, you will have at least heard of the Three Gorges Dam project. Initially conceived by Sun Yat-Sen in 1919, it is now scheduled for completion in 2009. If built (and it is already under construction), it will be the largest hydroelectric project the world has ever seen - 60 miles longer than Lake Nasser behind Egypt’s Aswan Dam. Thirteen cities, 140 towns, more than 300 villages, and 1,600 factories will be submerged - leaving 1.5 million people to be relocated, and destroying evidence of human habitation that extends back to the Paleolithic era.
From an historical/archaeological perspective, the list of what will be lost is too long to even begin. One small town, Dachang, well-preserved from the Ming and Qing period (AD 1368 - 1912) will be moved to higher ground - a recovery of sorts, but it’s not even the one tenth of the tip of the iceberg, I’m sure. Beyond archaeology, there’s the tremendous environmental concerns. An article in Foreign Affairs says, “The environmental effects will be comparable to those of damming the Grand Canyon or diverting Niagara Falls.” Some suggest that the Chinese alligator, the finless porpoise, the river dolphin, and the Chinese sturgeon, which exists only in the Yangzte and dates back to the age of the dinosaurs, will all be endangered or wiped out. Seismologists are worried about the effects of a body of water this big, and thus heavy, on a region that is earthquake prone.
Naturally, a series of smaller dams would be equally efficient. But world governments, and particularly communist ones, always want to go large.
From Mr. Anderson