@prashanthamine
Confusion reigns supreme as Chinese authorities admit to the dam getting deformed. But Chinese authorities claim that the dam can withstand an atomic bomb blast
Mumbai: Confusion reigns supreme as media reports claim to the Chinese authorities admitting that the world’s largest Hydro-power project, the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) on the Yangtze river in Yiling district of Hubei province has deformed due to severe flooding caused due to incessant rains. If true it could well possibly trigger world’s largest manmade disaster. The Chinese authorities however claim that the deformation in the dam was well within the parameters and that the dam could withstand an impact of an atomic bomb blast.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) which has quoted Xinhua News Agency, the official Chinese state media, states that the Chinese have for the first time confirmed that the TGD has deformed. However, the agency adds that the main parameters of the dam’s displacement, seepage and deformation are all within the normal range.
China has been experiencing unprecedented incessant rains for more than 40 days now. Images attributed to Google Earth circulating on Twitter show the dam structure as it was in 2009 and deformed dam structure in 2018.
When the dam was constructed in 2006 and made functional in 2012, the Chinese authorities had then claimed that the dam could withstand once in a 10,000 year super large flood. However, the Chinese authorities have not any data on the dam’s displacement, seepage and deformation raising concerns.
The dam has a discharge peak flow of 124,300 cubic meters per second and the impact of the flow of the flood waters now is 61,000 cubic meters per second. Moreover, there is large amount of sediment deposits in the dam which is raising questions over the dam’s theoretical discharge value of 124,300 cubic meters.
The enormity and the sheer scale of the dam under-pins the fears of an impending disaster. If anything worse were to happen, cities like Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai that sit along the banks of the river could be devastated. Till July 9, the Chinese authorities were trying to downplay reports of the dam warping arguing that there were “no problems at all”.
Construction work on the dam began on December 14, 1994 and was completed in 2006, but it was put into operation only in 2012 as work on the turbines and other works delayed its start.
The dam has an installed power generation capacity of 22,500 MWs which is produced by 32 main turbines each having a capacity of 700 MWs. The dam is 2,335 meters (7,661 feet) long and maximum height is 185 meters (607 feet). The total capacity of the dams backwater is about 39.3 Kms with a catchment area of 10,00,000 Kms. The dam’s reservoir flood storage capacity is about 22 cubic Kms (1,80,00,000 acre feet)
The total cost incurred for the construction was about 203 billion Yuans (31.765 billion US$). The dam is owned by China Yangtze Power, a subsidiary of the China Three Gorges Corporation. The dam sits on a seismic fault and covers Qutang, Wu, and Xiling gorges, hence the name Three Gorges Dam.
When the dam was constructed it had displaced about 1.3 million people. Ever since the dam was constructed it has attracted criticism with experts arguing that the dam had caused significant ecological changes, caused landslides and earthquakes.
The dam was first envisaged by Sun Yat Sen in 1919. But the preliminary work began in 1932 during the reign of the nationalist government of Chang Kai-shek. After the brief occupation by the Japanese in 1939 construction work suffered.
In 1944 US Bureau of Reclamation, head designer, engineer John L Savage surveyed the area and made a design for the dam. About 54 Chinese engineers were sent to the US to study and training. After the Communists took over power in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong supported the project. However, it took another 45 years for the actual construction work on the dam to begin.
