Benefits of Three Gorges Dam

The construction of Three Gorges Dam mainly brought there benefits: flood control, electricity generating, and navigation. Among which the flood control was thought to be the most important benefit of Three Gorges Dam.

Benefits of Three Gorges Dam – Flood Control

In history, there are frequent flood disasters on upper reaches of Yangtze River and its tributaries. The safety of some cities (such as Wuhan City) is greatly threatened if there is a strong flood. After the construction of Three Gorges Dam, its great storage capacity could protect the cities at lower reaches of Yangtze River from the destructive flood. The construction of Three Gorges Dam is also helpful to the treatment of Dongting Lake and the overall repair of Jingjiang River Dike at lower reaches of Yangtze River.

Benefits of Three Gorges Dam – Electricity Gnerating

The economic benefit of Three Gorges Dam is mainly reflected from the electricity generating. Three Gorges Dam is an important and large electricity source in the middle line of the transmission of electricity from the western to the eastern region. It is pretty close to the Western China and Southern China electricity load centers. The electricity generated here would be transmitted to Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Henan Province, Jiangxi Province, Chongqing, Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Anhui Province and Guangdong Province.

The construction and operation of Three Gorges Dam greatly relieve the power supply pressure of China. In 2003, there was a severe shortage of power supply in some regions of China. The price of the coal rose rapidly. Since then, Three Gorges Hydroelectric Plant was put into operation formally. It greatly solved the problem of severe shortage of power supply in some regions.

Benefits of Three Gorges Dam – Navigation

The flow of Three Gorges is rapid and strong before the construction of Three Gorges Dam. A noted poet in Tang Dynasty – Li Bai has wrote a famous poetry named Leaving White Emperor City at Dawn: "We set sail at dawn from White Emperor City under a rosy sky, One thousand miles trip down to Jiangling and back the same day. The noisy chatter of apes from the shores followed us all the way. Lightly, our boat skipped past ten thousand green and high mountains." It is dangerous for the vessels to take a downstream and difficult for the vessels to take an upstream. Only vessels less than 3000 tons could navigate to Chongqing from Yichang.

After the construction of Three Gorges Dam, the dangerous river course of Three Gorges became a lake with slow flows. 10000-ton vessels could even sail up to Chongqing from Shanghai. The navigation condition of the lower reaches of Three Gorges Dam could even be improved through the discharge of the reservoir in the dry seasons.