Should the Three Gorges Dam Been Built?
Dear President Hu Jintao,
I am writing to you today to explain what the Three Gorges Dam is, why it is needed, the social, environmental and economic advantages and disadvantages and whether should it have been built? Firstly the Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity it can create up to 22,500 MW enough to power New York for 10 years. In 2012, the amount of electricity the dam generated was similar to the amount generated by the Itaipu Dam. This is the world’s largest dam as is located in
…show more content…
The top five investors in the project are Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, and Canada. All are part of the Organization for Economic and Co-operative Development, membership of which requires the agreement to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises to “respect the human rights of those affected by their activities”
. Over 10 million Chinese have been relocated by dam-related projects throughout China’s history, 46% of them living in extreme poverty. Of the 1.2 million relocated so far by the Three Gorges Dam, 500,000 are peasant farmers, many of whom earn just 1/3 of the World Bank poverty level of $1 per day. The resetllers were not offered substantial compensation to cover the cost of new housing. Most were moved into to urban centres near Chongqing, or into the new cities built specifically for relocation, on steep unstable slopes that have now been determined unfit for development or farming**************
Even though the Three Gorges Dam produces electricity for nearly the whole of china’s population I still do not believe that it should have been built. Despite the fact that the dam helped reduce pollution of the air because 1-4 coal power stations were being built and the dam help reduce that the impacts on the environment, people, and just the cost of the dam it would have probably been better to keep building coal power stations. I believe this because nearly 1.2
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China, established by Moa Zedong in 1952, is a water diversion project that would divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually to the drier north of China ("South-to-North Water"). The project would link China’s four main rivers the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe. China plans on doing this by constructing three diversion routes moving through the south to north ("South-to-North Water"). It would stretch across the central, eastern and western parts of the country ("South-to-North Water"). This project is expected to cost around $62 billion dollars and take around 50 more years to complete ("South-to-North Water"). By trying to divert the rivers and create an equal distribution of water, the project raises many environmental concerns but has many positives. This paper will evaluate the different perspectives of the ecomodernist and resilience theory. This will be shown by analyzing each perspective, evaluating the different concerns and analyzing how each perspective would respond to the water diversion project.
The Grand Coulee Dam, located in Eastern Washington, was one of controversy, risk, and a point of no return. While the water captured made the desert area blossom in agriculture and it powered some large cities, it created a sense of accomplishment, that humans can control Mother Nature. While many people were very excited for this new construction – which gives power and resources - at the time, some thought it should not be allowed, they are not proud of containing the Columbia River. In this analysis, I am going to focus on the economic and social effects that the Grand Coulee Dam created in its build.
The article “Down go the dams” by Jane C.Marks aim to provide an informative view on the current pending issue on Dams. The article starts out my mentioning the important nature of dams in our society. For example, Jane C.Marks states that today about 800,000 dams operate worldwide as well as the fact that most were built in the past century, primarily after World War II. Furthermore, the author lays down informative facts about dams such as the fact that dams control flooding and their reservoirs provide a reliable supply of water for irrigation, drinking and recreation which are all very important to society. In an economic standpoint, although it is very high maintenance dams provide jobs for people. The
The Three Gorges Dam is an unfinished project which will be the largest dam ever constructed on the planet Earth. It is situated in China on the third largest river in the world – the Yangtze. The dam has been debated over since the 1919 and is still a hot topic of debate because of its many pros and cons. In 1994 construction began on the dam, and it is expected to be finished by the year 2009. The massive dimensions of the dam are mind boggling and its functions – if the dam actually works – are truly remarkable; however, with such a large structure also comes difficulties, sacrifices, and cynics. The goal of this essay is to lend an understanding of the dam itself, the prospective benefits of
The Grand Coulee Dam(G.C.D) changed Kettle Falls forever. Kettle Falls was a peaceful river where Native Americans fished every year. It is said that around 3,000 fish were fished every year. Then in 1933, everything changed when the Grand Coulee Dam started construction and finished on June 1, 1942, that is almost a decade. I feel like it is good that we built the Grand Coulee Dam. The Dam has great effects that have benefitted Washington. Two of them are the jobs people got in the Great Depression and Irrigation we got.
1. Why was the building of the dam first proposed in 1919 and by whom?
"The High Dam is the greatest project on the River Nile. It is one of
Life on the river was pretty much the same for thousands of years, until 1889 when the first Aswan Dam was built in an attempt to control the yearly floods. It proved to be insufficient and was raised two more times until it was decided to build another dam upstream in 1946. Once these dams were functional they provided many benefits to the rapidly growing population, including easier access to drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, electricity for modern life and fishing (Burke and Eaton) . Certainly the benefits to Egyptians were numerable and undeniable. The does not mean there were no negative impacts.The yearly floods no longer came and all that good, nutrient-rich silt that used to wash down the Nile and onto the flood plans was now blocked by the dams. “Before the Aswan High Dam, the Nile River carried about 124 million tons of sediment to the sea each year, depositing nearly 10 million tons on the floodplain and delta. Today, 98% of that sediment remains behind the dam. The result has been a drop in soil productivity and depth, among other serious changes to Egypt’s floodplain agriculture. The Aswan Dam has also led
• Ensure the human rights of the participants in emerging countries associated with the predictable risks
With human development, industrial pollution and other factors all contribute to the deteriorated condition of the river, which makes it difficult to determine the dams’ environmental impact in isolation. CITE That said, the current operations of the dam hamper and potentially prevent environmental improvement of the Colorado. In order to preserve some semblance of the Colorado ecosystem, man must restore the natural processes that created the ecosystem. The real question is how to do that, whether via dam decommission or a less extreme policy change.
The Banqiao Dam was built on the Ru River in the western Henan province of China (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). The dam had been completed in 1952 as an effort to control the Yellow River by providing flood prevention, and electricity production (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). The dam was built with a storage capacity of 492 million cubic meters, enough to sustain a 1,000 year flood (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). Shortly after construction, cracks emerged in the dam (Fish, 2013). From 1955-1956, the dam was reinforced utilizing Soviet engineering specifications (Fish, 2013). Upon completion, the dam gained the moniker “Iron Dam” (Fish, 2013) as a nod to its indestructibility.
Transnational Corporations have been steadfast in calling for respect, support and promotion of human rights (Kline, 2005). This has been done in reference to the United Nations Universal
INTRODUCTION: Water assets building is growing massively today. Dams have the most vital part in using water assets. They were developed taxing year before increasing present data about hydrology and hydro mechanics. All through the historical backdrop of the world, dams have been utilized effectively as a part of gathering, putting away and overseeing water expected to manage human advancement. Dams have a lot of positive and negative impacts on the earth. Their advantages like controlling stream administration, subsequently forestalling surges, getting local and water system water from put away water and creating vitality from hydro control. While dam give noteworthy advantage to our general public, their effect on the encompassing incorporates resettlement and migration, financial effect, natural concerns, sedimentation issue, security angles and so on. Notwithstanding their vital social and natural advantages, it is vital to minimize the negative impacts of the hoover dam on the earth with respect to feasible advancement.
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will probably be finished by 2009 and will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” Living in a country with as little supply as possible, imagine farming, and doing things you never did before to survive. It works and a few years you and your family have now settled in a village your happy. life is decent, not much to complain about. Located in Zambezi Basin which is home to close to forty million people, must now get up and move due to contraction that is about to take place. The field that once was filled with workers, a creek with swimming fishes. A village that cultivated many products, selling and buying making a living is and now you are being told to move. Questions swimming in your head as to how, where and will we be compensated for the life that we are already use to.