Beijing Admits to 'Urgent' Problems with Three Gorges Dam

Beijing Admits to 'Urgent' Problems with Three Gorges Dam

blogs.wsj .com

In a rare admission of problems associated with one of its signature infrastructure projects, China’s government warned Thursday that all is not well with the Three Gorges Dam.

China’s cabinet, the State Council, said in a statement released on its website that the $23 billion dam had provided “huge comprehensive benefits” but that a number of problems remained and were “urgently in need of resolution.”

(visit the link for the full news article)

I've been following this story since 2007 when the story of a potential disaster first broke. The possibility of "Disaster" has again been mentioned in the Media. Apparently the worlds largest Dam is starting to show some very serious and ominous issues. Some in China see them as signs for a potentially catastrophic outcome.

These signs include [but not limited to cracks in nearby fields and landslides] The story covers a number of other environmental issues as well.

and the project has been beset by issues ranging from pollution-fed algae blooms to mountainous islands of floating trash to worrying cracks in the earth in nearby fields.

Not trying to spread fear but, this story is starting to act like a bad penny and wont go away. I have a feeling we may be hearing much more about this developing situation in the future.

Hopefully not after the fact of a catastrophe with loss of life let's hope they will be able to deal with and resolve these issues and soon.

Thursday’s statement wasn’t the first time Beijing has openly sounded alarms on the Three Gorges Dam. In comments reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency in the fall of 2007, experts warned of “hidden problems”—including landslides, erosion and pollution—which, if left unresolved, “could lead to catastrophe.”

blogs.wsj .com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I remember seeing a Nat Geo show about that dam. What an amazing structure indeed. It's a shame as it seems no country is immune as of lately when it comes to infrastructure problems. Will keep an ear out for any further news, S&F.

Thanks mate.

I have wondered often about the weight of the water once the dam is full. It must have effects that show over time, and it would seem they are showing up.

Should the dam wall ever fail the catastrophe will be huge.

Out of all the crazy things China has done, building this Dam was the craziest. One decent sized earthquake, which we have in spades at the moment , and a major disaster will occur killing thousands. All due to their governments greed and ego

reply to post by Tayesin


I know what you mean. While reading this I had visions of the Japanese tsunami all over again.
Let's hope this doesn't become the case. Cracks in nearby fields doesn't sound that good. I'm no geologist or engineer but that sounds like to me that the surrounding area is under a tremendous amount of stress

reply to post by On the level


What exactly do they mean by...?

Without going into specifics, the State Council also said it planned to improve efforts to control water pollution and address the danger from geological disasters.

Maybe some of our more subject savvy members could shed some light on what exactly that means.

If that damn breaks the displacement of water will affect the rotation of the earth and create a planet-wide wobble.

I have read that upwards of 200 million could also perish...

reply to post by DJM8507




I've never heard that angle.
Do you have any links so we can read up on that scenario?

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by DJM8507

 

I've never heard that angle.
Do you have any links so we can read up on that scenario?

Here is a previous thread that talks about it.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Tayesin


It must be huge, all the surrounding land is resettling. I hope the area doesn't get hit by some major earthquake.
But small tremors could do serious damage as well if the structure of the dam is weak. Personally I think it's a weak dam. I've been in several eastern European countries and because of the corruption during communism, many structures are very poorly build. Workers stole cement and exchanged it with sand. Imagine if the Chinese workers did the same with that dam,
damn.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I remember seeing a documentary near the completion time and engineers/scientists were extremely concerned about it then. There was also talk it would pretty much have a military "Bulls Eye" painted on it by various governments!

I'm just waiting for the US to send in special ops and rig it with explosives, or focus a weather weapon on it.

Maybe the reason they haven't done that already is because China isn't exactly the push-over they want us to believe it is.

Originally posted by jaynkeel
I remember seeing a Nat Geo show about that dam. What an amazing structure indeed. It's a shame as it seems no country is immune as of lately when it comes to infrastructure problems. Will keep an ear out for any further news, S&F.

I didn't have too much confidence in China's rapidly expanding infrastructure. Anybody reading this remember the fairly recent Chinese "Highway ramp" that just simply fell over with no Earthquakes or landslide?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0198ebcd0072.jpg[/atsimg]

IMO this dam is the thing that will - sooner or later - do the same thing to china (or worse) that the recent earthquake did to japan. Then so much for china competing with the U.S. economically for awhile after that.

To put it into context, imagine if the U.S. had decided to dam the Mississippi River where the New Madrid fault is - except downriver the U.S. currently has far less to lose if the dam failed than china does.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
What exactly do they mean by...?

Without going into specifics, the State Council also said it planned to improve efforts to control water pollution and address the danger from geological disasters.

Maybe some of our more subject savvy members could shed some light on what exactly that means.

The pollution is a result of slower water flow which used to flush out the pollutants before the dam:

www.nytimes.com...

The dam has slowed the flow of the Yangtze and this reduces the ability of the river and its tributaries to flush out polluted areas.

People have already alluded to "geological instability", referring to earthquakes, and landslides:

www.terradaily.com...

geologists warn that the extra water increases the risk of landslides, earthquakes and damage to the Yangtze River's ecosystem.

Fan Xiao, chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, told the South China Morning Post that landslides are inevitable because elevated water levels significantly increasing the internal moisture of surrounding banks, making them soft, loose and unpredictable.

"It's like dipping a piece of bread in milk. The deeper you go, the more difficult it is to hold on," Fan said.

The unprecedented mass of water also increases the risk of earthquakes, he said.

The fuller the dam is the greater the risks.

Note that California often has big landslides after heavy rains, because the ground becomes unstable when it's saturated with water. Well, the dam is similarly saturating areas of ground with water that historically haven't been saturated, so landslides could be expected as a result.

Massive corruption still plagues China, contracted companies find ways to pinch more profits for their pockets while cutting corners. This is why they have so many problems with infrastructure, corruption scandals have broken out with some of their new high speed rail systems. Beijing can't control the whole nation.

That doesn't mean we don't have corruption in our own country or the rest of the world for that matter, China has to do things BIG so their problems will be BIG.

Originally posted by bsbray11
I'm just waiting for the US to send in special ops and rig it with explosives, or focus a weather weapon on it.

Maybe the reason they haven't done that already is because China isn't exactly the push-over they want us to believe it is.

You mean like how Former Soviet Generals admitted they had targeted Hoover Dam and Yellowstone for extra attention.

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by bsbray11
I'm just waiting for the US to send in special ops and rig it with explosives, or focus a weather weapon on it.

Maybe the reason they haven't done that already is because China isn't exactly the push-over they want us to believe it is.

You mean like how Former Soviet Generals admitted they had targeted Hoover Dam and Yellowstone for extra attention.

Exactly, exactly the same.


Second line for extra emphasis... The US does no better today.

Originally posted by DJM8507

Thanks for the link.
I apparently missed that thread.

Thanks