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.
 
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.
 
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)