China's Three Gorges Dam comes of age
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Fifteen years after dynamite blasts first shattered the peace of
China's breathtaking Three Gorges, the Three Gorges Dam - the pride of China's
engineering progress - is nearing completion. But the cannonade of criticism
bombarding the world's largest and costliest dam in history is far from over.
In a matter of days the water level in the reservoir on the Yangtze River will
reach its final height of 175 meters. With every meter of water filling the
concrete coffer the swell of domestic opposition has increased and the voices
of its international critics have grown louder.
Unlike 12 years ago, when Beijing staged elaborate celebrations to mark the
diversion of the Yangtze on the spot of the future
dam, this time around officials and engineers are marking the completion of the
dam in a low-profile manner.
At home they are facing criticism that the filling of the dam is exacerbating
the drought afflicting the river's delta. Abroad, where China has attempted to
export its Three Gorges model of generating economic growth through huge
hydropower works, Chinese engineers are being confronted with homegrown
opposition to such projects. Chinese diplomats are seeing a rising tide of
discontent with Beijing's expansion of hydropower diplomacy across Asia and
Africa.
Yet perhaps the most compelling reason for holding back the fireworks is that
the Three Gorges Dam stands as a monument to obsolete ambitions. As China
increasingly turns to new forms of renewable energy and even claims leadership
in the next wave of green development, the dam sends a signal of confused
priorities.
"The Three Gorges dam is a model of the past," says Peter Bosshard, the policy
director of California-based International Rivers, whose avowed mission is "to
protect rivers and the communities that depend on them".
"There are smarter ways of generating energy and managing floods than by
building outdated mega-projects," adds Bosshard.
Damming the Yangtze was one of the dreams of Sun Yat-sen - the founding father
of modern China who toppled the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Chairman Mao Zedong
ordered the first digs on the project before the turmoil of the Cultural
Revolution (1966-76) put a halt to it. Both saw the dam as a way of controlling
devastating floods along the lower Yangtze and creating a backbone for a
national power grid.
No longer a thing of dreams but a reality, the Three Gorges Dam has a capacity
of 18,000 megawatts of electricity. But in the process of its construction
1,350 villages were submerged and 1.3 million people displaced from their
homes.
It is not only the world's largest but also the costliest hydropower project
ever undertaken. When it was approved in 1992, its cost was estimated at 57
billion renminbi (US$8.3 billion). In the meantime, it has risen to $27 billion
by the Chinese government's reckoning and to $88 billion by some outside
estimates.
The hidden costs of the dam are only now beginning to emerge. Blocking the
river flow has changed the ecosystem of the Yangtze to a degree that rare river
species of dolphin and sturgeon are now facing extinction. The commercial
fisheries in the Yangtze and off the river's mouth in the East China Sea have
declined sharply. Other disastrous side effects have included the pollution of
freshwater supplies, deadly landslides and an increased risk of earthquakes.
In September 2007, government officials admitted that "if preventive measures
are not taken, there could be an environmental collapse".
It was former premier, Li Peng, an engineer by education, who was the driving
force behind the project and who will be remembered for it. In 1992, Li managed
to suppress opposition to the project at home and ram approval for the dam
through the parliament. Experts say the effort was motivated by Li's desire to
rebuild his political legacy in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown on democracy, which he oversaw.
The damming of the Yangtze "is an event that not only inspires people but
demonstrates the greatness of the achievement of China's development", he said
in 1997, presiding over the ceremony to mark the river's diversion.
These days, though, Chinese politicians are talking about developing a
"low-carbon" economy, and describing China's greatness in terms of massive dams
is no longer the phrase of the day.
The country is now the world's leading producer of greenhouse gases and in
recent years has taken an aggressive path to develop alternative sources of
energy. China is planning to build more nuclear power plants, become the
front-runner in wind and solar-power generation and dramatically raise the
efficiency of all new buildings.
But the debate on how to go forward with developing hydropower - a
controversial power source because of its impact on river ecosystems - is
ongoing.
China now leads the world in installed hydropower capacity, with 150 gigawatts
(GW) of capacity, according to the London-based International Hydropower
Association, which represents the hydropower sector. The Chinese government
plans to expand this capacity to a future level of 700 GW.
More than 100 dams are being planned for the middle and upper reaches of the
Yangtze River. What is more, China is actively seeking to export its Three
Gorges expertise abroad, signing up agreements to build hydropower works in
countries from Cambodia to Pakistan and Nigeria.
Proponents of the hydropower industry here are unequivocal in their support for
more dams. Pan Jiazheng, hydrologist with the Chinese Academy of Engineering,
argues that water is the only renewable energy source in China that can be
developed on a large scale.
"Developing hydropower is the only viable way to make a dent in China's
consumption of coal," Pan says. "Those who argue that hydropower is not a clean
energy have to ask themselves whether there is any other task more urgent for
China's clean development than burning less coal".
In 2008, thermal power accounted for 80% of China's total energy output.
Hydropower generated 16.4% of the country's energy mix, while nuclear energy
accounted for less than 2%. While China is racing ahead to install more wind-
and solar-power capacity, the energy generated by these works is considered too
costly and insufficient to satisfy the country's voracious power needs.
Critics of hydropower expansion, though, are equally forceful.
"It is quasi-science to believe that hydropower equals green energy," says
Zheng Yisheng, who researches environment and development at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences. "You can't see rivers just as a source of energy
and choose to ignore their ecological function as eco-systems. People need
energy but they need a place to live too."
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