China discharges floodwater from one of the world’s largest dams amid heavy rain season

It's the world biggest hydropower project

Following viral videos on social media of flooding cities below the Three Gorges Dam and complaints by residents, the Chinese government acknowledged that it had released floodwaters from its spillways for the first time this year. Experts dismissed risks of the collapse of the dam.

Credit Flickr

The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s biggest hydropower project and has been functional since 2012. It spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping in the Yiling District in China. The project has been criticized over fears of the collapse of the dam and the fact that it involved the displacement of 1.3 million people.

Videos surfaced on social media showing intense flooding in Hubei Province’s Yichang City, which lies directly below the dam. Residents suspected that the flooding was related to an emergency flood discharge from the sluices of the monster dam, something that the Chinese government initially dismissed.

Nevertheless, China finally admitted that the dam had implemented its first floodwater discharge of the year and that a new wave of flooding is heading toward the Three Gorges catchment area, which covers one million squared kilometers – amid heavy rainfall in the Yangtze River.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the dam’s operators had opened two spillways on Monday, with 34 of the dam’s generators fully operational and close to full capacity. The agency reported heavy rain near the tributaries of the Yangtze river as well as in the Jialing and Han rivers.

Xinhua also reported that by Sunday the inflow of the dam had reached 40,000 cubic meters per second, twice the amount seen the previous day. In response to the incoming water, authorities ordered that the daily discharge threshold of Three Gorges Reservoir be increased to 35,000 cubic meters per second.

Chinese state media had previously claimed that the dam was making full efforts to “generate electricity.” However, some Hong Kong news outlets alleged that the “power generation” of the Three Gorges facility was actually an emergency flood discharge to prevent the dam from the threat of collapse.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) cited Zhang Jianping, a Chinese human rights activist based in Jiangsu, as saying that those who had opposed the construction of the monstrous dam were right. “Since it was built, it has never played a role in preventing flooding or droughts, like we thought it would back then.”

Guo Xun, a research fellow at the Institute of Engineering Mechanics at the China Earthquake Administration in Beijing, told Global Times that the dam is capable of holding far larger inflows than it is seeing now. He argued the dam is capable of meeting water levels at 175 meters or flow up to 70,000 cubic meters per second.

The current two-meter excess of water that the dam now has indicates that water in the reservoir needs to be discharged to balance outflow and inflow to prevent the water level from continuing to mount, a common practice in rain seasons, Guo said. He dismissed the water is not a challenge to the reservoir.

Speculation that the dam is an impending disaster has long circulated. In July 2019, a satellite image of Google Maps appeared to show that the Three Gorges Dam was distorted, sparking concerns that it is at the edge of breaking. But the dam’s operators claim that the structure is operating normally and that the dam is safe and reliable.

Popular in the Community

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

A record 53.6 million tons of e-waste was produced last year, says UN

Image
There's sign of decline in the near future. From flat-screen TVs to cellphones, humans generated 53.6 million metric tons of  electronic waste  last year, almost two million metric tons more than the previous year. Only 17% of the waste was recycled, with the rest ending up in landfills, incinerated or just unaccounted for. Electronic and electrical goods such as computers, refrigerators, and kettles have gradually become indispensable in modern societies, making lives easier in many ways. But they can also have toxic chemicals, and a growing production of waste is damaging the environment and human health. The figures for last year, reported by the  United Nation’s Global E-waste Monitor , are equivalent to 7.3 kilograms of electronic waste for every man, woman and child on Earth, though the use is concentrated in wealthier countries. The amount of e-waste is growing three times faster than the world’s population Citizens of northern European countries produced the most e-waste la
Read More

What are the benefits of using CBD topicals

Image
Because topical CBD interacts with the body differently from products taken orally, effects could vary wildly. CBD (cannabidiol) products are all the rage right now, with countless companies and merchandisers offering a wide variety of options. While edibles are usually the products of choice, some prefer topical CBD products to avoid gastrointestinal problems or to reap potential pain reduction effects from local application to specific body parts, such as a sore shoulder or ankle. It is, however, extremely probable that there are significant differences in outcomes between oral and topical administration of CBD products.  What’s CBD and what is it good for? Credit: Phyto. CBD is one of the many compounds found in  Cannabaceae  plants, or, as most people call them, cannabis plants. It can be extracted from both the marijuana and hemp plants; however, most US states require that CBD oil products come from hemp and do not contain more than 0.03%  THC . CBD oil does not produce a high, b
Read More

This is what ocean acidification is doing to creatures in the Arctic

Image
The Arctic ocean acidification is much worse than we thought. As we emit more and more carbon dioxide, the effects are being felt not just above ground, but also underwater.  A marine snail shows damage to its shell (jagged line radiating from center) due to acidic ocean waters. Image credits: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA Ocean acidification is often regarded as the unseen twin of climate warming. It’s unseen because we humans don’t spend much of our time underwater, but for the creatures that do, it’s a catastrophe. When carbon is emitted into the atmosphere, a part of it gets absorbed by the oceans, producing carbonic acid. This acid essentially dissolves the shell of marine creatures such as mollusks, sea urchins, starfish, and corals, making it difficult or impossible for them to survive. Researchers have already identified this process, as well as the way ripples it down the entire oceanic food chain. But according to a new study, it’s even worse than we th
Read More