« The one who rules water rules China »

This proverb can help us to understand the chinese’s ambition to realise huge hydrologics projects.
Let’s talk about one : the Three Gorges Dam on the Yang tse river. This dam is the biggest of the world : 2309m long and 185m tall. His reservoir is 660km long, and it began to store water on June 1, 2003. The construction was finished in 2009. It has cost 13 billion dollars. The objectives : supply 10% of the Chinese electricity.
This dam seems to be benefic for Chinese developpement, but a project like that is not realizable without sacrifices.

First, the reservoir has inundated a lot of cultural and patrimonial wealths, such as 44 archaelogical sites among the most legendary of China.

Secondly, 2 million people had to move far away of their homes and jobs. 8 towns and 4500 villages have been inundated, as well as 657 firms and 28753 ha of fields. Among this people, 60% were farmers. They were relodged in the mountains, where lands are poor and the traditional citrus fruit cultivation impossible. What is more, a lot of people were relodged to Guangxi province, wich has the most important national unemployment rate at the present time. Therefore, a lot of people can’t find a job in their new town.
One third of the dam’s budget was consecrated to these displacements, but provided for 1,3 million persons.

Finally, the Three Gorges zone has a wealthy biodiversity, with thousands animals and plants speces, wich 55 are protected. Unfortunately, the dam draws a lot of pollution. The water has recovered many polluted zone (such as tombs, coalmines, dumps…) and many chemical products are now stagnating in the reservoir. Moreover, the sediment’s accumulation and the water’s wheight in the reservoir could bring about fissures on the dam, and at the very worst a collapse.

What is more, many species are threatened by the water’s stagnation : the Yang tse dolphin (the Baiji) disapeared in 2008 as many other species.

This project is a national pride occasion, but the social cost, environemental and cultural is considerable. Only time will tell us if these sacrifices were legitimate.