THREE GORGES DAM

THREE GORGES DAM

BY DANI GRAVES AND SANDRA MANCHESTER

• This three gorges dam spans the yangtze river in sandouping, China.

• The length of the dam is an immense 2,335 metres (7,661 ft)

• The height is an impressive 185 metres (607 ft)

• The width of this incredible dam is 115 metres (377.3 ft)

• The construction began in 1994

• The cost of the construction was estimated an amazing 180 billion Yuan (16 billion pounds)

• It has been proposed to produce energy to the equivalent of 15 nuclear power plants, giving power to one 9th of china's electricity

• It’s also been said to tame the rivers floods.

• It also will provide new shipping routes for large freighters further up river.

• Opponents claim the project will be an ecological and economic disaster and point to the social costs of resettling 1.2 million people from the areas the new reservoir will flood. Which include dozens of cities and towns, hundreds of villages, 650 factories and more than 200,000 acres of cropland and forest

• 3.6 billion cubic feet of rock and soil have to be excavated and 1 billion cubic feet of embankment fill moved. Which will have a massive impact on the environment