Contains raging flood waters; Despite its effectiveness, critics still dispute worth of world's largest dam
By AILEEN MCCABE, Postmedia News July 21, 2010 4:05 AM
China's controversial Three Gorges Dam appears to have passed its biggest test yet, managing to contain raging flood waters yesterday as the Yangtze River rose to levels not seen in more than a decade.
The dam is successfully handling an inflow of 70,000 cubic metres a second and discharging 40,000 cubic metres a second.
"The peak flow is high, but it has not exceeded the designed capacity of 100,000 cubic metres of water per second," Cao Guangjing, chairman of the China Three Gorges Corp., told the official Xinhua News Agency. "The dam can withstand the challenge easily," Cao said.
The inflow volume is 20,000 cubic metres greater than during the catastrophic Yangtze floods of 1998, when 4,150 people were killed and 18.4 million fled their homes.
A total of 146 deaths have been blamed on a week of heavy rains that are drowning southeast China, and 40 people are missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Three+Gorges+passes+huge+test/3303209/story.html#ixzz0uJjPah4P
Water is discharged from the Three Gorges Dam to lower the level in its reservoir in Yichang, Hubei province July 20, 2010.
REUTERS/Stringer
The Three Gorges Dam (simplified Chinese: 长江三峡大坝; traditional Chinese: 長江三峽大壩; pinyin: Chángjiāng Sānxiá Dàbà) is ahydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province,China. It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.
The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008 when the 26th generator in the shore plant began commercial operation. Each generator has a capacity of 700 MW.
Three Gorges Dam, China
The Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River was holding up against its first major flood-control test Tuesday, officials of the China Three Gorges Corporation said.
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