Southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality officially established its Three Gorges Reservoir
Administration on Tuesday to deal with affairs concerning the huge
water control project's Chongqing section. The administration will
set policies concerning water quality, environmental protection,
development of area resources and emergency preparedness and
response.
Immigration Bureau Director Liu Fuyin said that the new
organization will also be responsible for overseeing construction
as well as monitoring and gathering data related to the gigantic
water conservancy project.
The Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River is the largest
hydroelectric dam in the world. Actual construction of phase one
began in 1994, and the Yangtze was dammed for the first time at the
Three Gorges area on November 8, 1997.
The 180 billion yuan (US$21.7 billion) project is designed to
include 26 generators with a combined capacity of up to 18.2
million kilowatts. When completed in 2009, the mammoth dam will be
able to produce 84.7 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually. To
date, 11 generators installed on the northern bank of the Yangtze
have begun operation.
The dam stretches for about 1,500 meters across the world's
third-longest river, and towers 175 meters above it. More than 1.1
million people have been relocated to make way for the reservoir
and dam.
The project is also designed to help control flooding on middle
and lower reaches of the Yangtze.
Because both the central and local governments are concerned
about unanticipated environmental impact, a comprehensive
monitoring system has been in place since construction began.
Although soil erosion has declined about 1 percent per year, sludge
and pollution in the reservoir are at risk of increasing.
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The project has significantly improved water transport and more
people are operating commercial vessels. While bringing immediate
economic benefits, the 100,000 ships and boats in the area's waters
eject 50,000 tons of garbage and up to 20 million tons of
wastewater into the Yangtze River each year.
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A budget of 39 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion) was approved in 2003
to build 28 waste treatment plants, 26 of which have been
completed.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2005)