Travel & Tourism

Three Gorges Dam

Hydro-Electricity Backgrounder

Hydro-electricity is energy created by falling water

The water must fall a

considerable distance to

have enough energy to

push a heavy turbine

and a generator

Dams provide this

vertical distance

Water Power Advantages

• It is clean and renewable

• It leaves no waste

• The reservoirs that form

behind dams offer

recreational opportunities

and provide drinking water

• Dams may control flooding

Water Power Disadvantages

• Dam construction can disrupt existing land and river ecosystems

• The newly created flood plain may displace a number of settled people

• The cost of constructing a dam has soared

• Hydroelectricity is an option limited to areas that have rivers and streams

Dams Around the World

Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam – July 2000

Three Gorges Dam – May 2006

Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam – Locks

Three Gorges Dam Backgrounder

• 40 to 80 million people worldwide have been have been physically displaced, usually by being “flooded out”, by the construction of dams

• With the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, an estimated 2 million people will be displaced

• Most dams provide benefits for a country or region as a whole while the people who are most affected and bear the brunt of the costs usually live in the river valley or close to the river’s edge

• The Three Gorges Dam , at more than 182 m high and 2.4 km wide, with a 640 km long reservoir will be one of the few man made structures visible from space

Three Gorges Dam Issues

Political• Countries not showing support, but Multinational

Companies are.

Economic• Provide inexpensive energy • Will help with economic development• Increase shipping into interior of China• Cost of $25 Billion

Three Gorges Dam Issues

Social• Will stop flooding and will save lives• Will displace 1 million to 2 million people• Loss of farming land (people will be moved to insufficient

farm land)• Loss of cultural sites (ancient temples, monuments),

burial grounds

Environmental• Less coal needed• Change the ecosystem for the fish• May threaten endangered species• Lake will not allow for movement of wastes