Three Gorges Dam Benefits

Since ancient times, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River has been the source of inspiration for literati. The waters here are rough, the canyons are steep, and the natural scenery is breathtaking. Therefore, whenever writers are in this place, they all inspire poetry and painting, and create many classic works.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River became one of the key points that the country tried to control. The huge gap provides China with abundant hydropower resources. After a long period of demonstration and construction, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River was finally completed. It has not only become an important energy hub in western China, transporting large amounts of energy to areas such as Sichuan, but also solved the problems of agricultural irrigation and flood control in the central region.

After 2020, the impact of the epidemic gradually waned, and the public began to pay more attention to public information. As summer approaches, southern China is frequently hit by heavy rainfall and floods. At the same time, people found that the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is continuing to discharge water, causing widespread concern. Which makes you wonder: Isn’t the Three Gorges Dam considered a great flood control tool? Why do you choose to release water at this time?

In fact, understanding this problem is not simple and requires a certain amount of professional knowledge. There is more to the decision than meets the eye.

At the end of 2019, no one could have foreseen how magical the following year would be. The trade war between China and the United States has had a serious impact on the national economy and people’s livelihood, but it has ushered in new challenges.

Heavy rainfall in the south led to flooding in low-lying areas, leaving many people homeless and suffering huge losses of life and property. China has many water projects that were built with the promise of flood control, especially the Three Gorges Project, which has attracted attention because of its huge investment.

In this southern flood, people found that the Three Gorges Dam even continued to discharge water downstream, which is what happened?

From a professional point of view, the Three Gorges is indeed carrying out flood control, and the flood discharge is also one of its flood control methods.

The Three Gorges Dam of Yangtze River is the largest water conservancy project in China. Since the founding of New China, the demonstration began, and the construction began in the new century, and the final completion was smooth. During the construction process, the publicity of the Three Gorges Dam repeatedly emphasized its great flood control effect.

According to the available data, after the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, a huge reservoir with a length of about 600 kilometers and an average width of 1.8 kilometers was formed in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River, with a total water storage area of 1,084 square kilometers. Such a large artificial lake plays an important role in Chinese society.

To prevent enemy damage, the Three Gorges Dam claims to be able to withstand atomic attacks. If the reservoir is damaged by war, such a huge amount of water will directly wash away all personnel, facilities and buildings along the coast. To prevent this, China is protecting the Three Gorges Dam.

The total reservoir capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 39.3 billion cubic meters. How amazing is this figure? If all the water from the Yangtze River that flows into the sea in a year were stored, the Three Gorges Dam would contain only 4% of that water. But compare that to lakes, and the difference is obvious. Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake, has a total storage capacity of only 26 billion cubic meters, far less than the Three Gorges Dam.

With such a huge reservoir, the Three Gorges Dam can claim to have strong flood control capacity. Internet users were puzzled when they saw the Three Gorges Dam releasing water downstream during a flood.

You can’t take things at face value. The Three Gorges discharged flood water because its storage capacity was full. When it is rainy upstream, the Three Gorges Dam successfully blocked the flood peak, and a large amount of rainwater was trapped in the dam, reducing the pressure of flood control downstream.

When flooding was severe downstream, the Three Gorges bought them time, but its storage capacity was always limited, so the Three Gorges Dam began to release water at a certain time. The flood discharge is to release water from the reservoir and free up part of the storage capacity of the dam, and the water from the upstream Yangtze River is constantly injected into the dam. In order to accumulate such a huge amount of water, the Three Gorges had to open floodgates to prevent floods, but not all the water was released, but carried out in an orderly manner.

As many people have done the math, there is more water coming in, less water coming out, and relatively little water coming out, which slows the peak of the flood. In addition, although the Three Gorges Dam discharge, but the flood is not caused by, the Yangtze River in the middle and lower reaches of continuous heavy rainfall is the cause of disaster, floods in these areas are not from the Yangtze River water, but the sky rain into the Yangtze River, and the Three Gorges Dam has little to do with.

In addition to flood control, the Three Gorges project also has important power generation functions. The price of electricity in the area supplied by the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is quite cheap, which can be said that it is obvious.

Especially at the height of the bitcoin hype, many mining companies have flocked to places such as Sichuan to use computers to mine bitcoin, and they have chosen these areas mainly because of the low price of hydropower resources. The Three Gorges Project has transported a large amount of electricity to the western region, which has gradually promoted the development of large-scale industries in the region and added new advantages to the economic development of the western region.

In addition to power generation, the Three Gorges Project also undertakes many duties such as shipping, irrigation and water supply. This great project succeeded in taming the waters of the Yangtze River, bringing a stable and carefree life to the residents along the river, no longer worrying about the dangers of floods.