The most powerful dam in the world.
Large and powerful structures
dominate the Earth.
Incredibly huge engineering
projects are being built
even as we speak.
But amongst such monstrosities,
none can come quite near.
China's Three Gorges
Dam is regarded
as one of the largest
engineering projects ever built.
The Three Gorges Dam
generates 11 times
more power than the Hoover Dam in the USA
and is the largest
and costliest hydroelectric
dam in the world.
It is also proven to be
one of the world's
most controversial projects
due to its negative impact
and destruction of the environment.
The water displacement is so powerful,
it is said that it can even slow down
the rotation of the earth.
But is that true?
We'll let you know soon enough.
In this video,
we present to you
some amazing facts
about the Three Gorges Dam.
It is the largest dam in the world.
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze
River is located
west of each city in Hubei
Province, China.
While the official construction
of the dam began in 1994.
China has been toying with the idea
since the twenties.
The dam was completed in 2006,
making it the largest dam
structure in the world.
The straight crested
gravity dam is a massive 2335
meters or 7660 feet long
and 181 meters tall or 607 feet.
The construction of the Three Gorges
Dam took 510,000 tons of steel
and 28 million cubic meters of concrete.
To put that into perspective,
all of that steel could easily be
used to construct 60 Eiffel Towers.
China has built it for
three major purposes.
The Three Gorges Dam was engineered
for flood
control, hydroelectric power, production
and navigation movement.
Such ambitions
need a tremendous amount of energy,
which is why the Three Gorges
Dam is providing energy
to millions of people
using 34 massive generators.
It is similar to a power
plant burning
25 million tons of coal
or crude oil daily.
The Three Gorges
Dam generates
11 times more power than the Hoover
Dam in the USA
and is the world's
largest power station
with a capacity of 22,500 megawatts.
The power generation is so massive
it could supply energy
to the whole of China.
It was originally conceived
by Sun Yat sen in 1916.
Although China likes to credit
the vision of Three Gorges
Dam to Mao Zedong,
it was originally conceived by Sun Yat
Sen in 1916.
Sun Yat
sen, the first president of the Chinese
Republic,
envisioned a dam
so large
that it would be capable
of generating 30 million horsepower.
He said the project
would be possible downstream
at the Three Gorges.
In 1932
it was Chiang Kai
shek nationalist government
that began work on the dam.
It was delayed for 40 years.
The building of a dam
so large
was proving impossible for anyone
who tried to undertake the task.
The initial work started by Chiang
Kai shek was soon stopped
due to wars
and political turmoil in China.
In 1946,
the Three Gorges Dam project was again
discussed by the government,
who signed a contract with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation
to choke out a design
that did not appear fruitful either.
Civil War and World War
Two took its toll on China, but in 1955
Mao Zedong
once again ordered the resuming
of the Three Gorges Dam project.
But that too ended in failure.
It wasn't until December 14th, 1994
that the official construction
of the Three Gorges Dam would begin.
It was finally completed in 2012.
But do you know how much China
spent on making the dam.
Keep watching to find out.
It cost China
$37 billion
to build the Three Gorges Dam.
When China approached the World
Bank for funding of the Three Gorges Dam.
It was flatly refused
because of the environmental concerns
and controversy surrounding the project.
The initial estimate was pegged
at a budget of 22.5 billion.
But by the end of 2008, construction
cost exceeded the figure
due to the $9.7 billion
in payoffs for people
to relocate from the area.
Funds for the dam came
from several major sources.
Three Gorges
Dam Construction Fund
Profits from the schedule by dam,
loans from the China
Development Bank
and loans from domestic
and foreign commercial banks.
China hoped to recover the amount
when the dam became operational
It's expected
generation of 1000 terawatt
hours of electricity
would fetch the country. $37 billion.
The dam's
final cost
was a staggering $37.2 billion.
But believe it or not,
the country recovered the entire expense
of the dam by 2013.
Better flood control.
The NC
is the third longest river in the world.
Snaking its way
6357 km across Asia.
But as majestic and beautiful
as the river may seem,
it is also one of China's
most destructive natural forces.
For hundreds of years,
the Yangtze has been flooding its banks,
affecting millions living alongside it
with the Three Gorges Dam.
China hopes to protect millions
residing in the Yangzi Basin
from the devastating effects of flooding.
The dam keeps the river at bay
during the flooding season.
And this protects important cities
lying adjacent to the Yangtze,
like Wuhan Nanjing and Shanghai.
However, the subject of flooding
is the first of the dams
controversies, where experts feel
that the dam will contribute
to more flooding like never before.
2010 turned out to be
one of the worst floods
China has ever seen in recent times.
Scientists have warned siphoning off
a third of the Han River
will reduce water
quality, increasing
flash floods in the area
To make matters worse,
China is now going ahead
with a $62 billion south
to north water diversion project.
Despite the environmental
and social impact,
it has destroyed villages
forests and archaeological sites.
The Three Gorges
Dam may have had its benefits
in terms of power generation
for the country,
but its construction included significant
destruction and displacement of land
and people.
More than 1.9 million
people were displaced
from 1500 cities,
towns and villages along the river.
All of these have been submerged
by the world's largest reservoir
But that wasn't all.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy
caused by the Three Gorges
Dam is the submerging
of the beautiful scenery
and landscape of the area,
including hundreds of rare
and valuable architecture all
and archaeologically significant sites.
The dam is a danger to the environment.
The region of the Three Gorges
Dam is home to 6400 plant species.
3400 insect species, 300
fish species,
and more than 500
terrestrial vertebrate species.
The dam is so massive
that it has created its own microclimate
that is threatened.
The eco system of the region.
Moreover,
experts say that
the dam will ultimately create
a lot of environmental disturbances
like landslides and earthquakes,
even threatening one of the world's
biggest fisheries in the East China Sea.
But if you thought China was affected
by the environmental concerns,
the country is planning seven more dams,
including enlarging the
then coal reservoir on its central route.
That will further
expel 300,000 people,
flooded towns, monuments
and destroy ecosystems in the process.
Believe it or not,
Chinese cities are refusing
water from the dam,
and the reason is murky.
Cities in China have refused water
from the dam.
Scientists have stated
the huge amount of human
and industrial waste from
cities would pollute
the reservoir
70% of China's water is already polluted.
And since 2006,
there have been reports of cracks,
landslides, ecological deterioration
and murky water in the dam.
Several cities
in China
have objected to obtaining water
from the diversion of water from the dam,
saying that it was too polluted.
North China has half the population
of the country
but has access
to only 15% of fresh water.
Tianjin, a city on the eastern route,
has already rejected the new supply,
claiming it to be too polluted.
The Three Gorges
Dam draws water from fault lines
in the Earth's surface.
The Three Gorges
Dam draws its water
from several resources,
including the Yangtze River.
But more than this, it uses
pumping stations and canals
to draw
45 billion cubic metres of water upstream
1000 miles each year.
The western route of the dam draws water
across five major fault lines.
Amongst these
being the epicenter of the
2008 earthquake
that killed over 70,000 people.
Ships can now navigate inland
by submerging vast areas of the Qutang
Wu, and Xiling gorges
for over 600 km upstream.
The Three Gorges
Dam project has created
a huge deep water
reservoir that can also be navigated
by oceangoing freighters
allowing them to reach
2250 km
inland from the city of Shanghai
on the East China Sea to the inland city
of Chongqing.
The Three Gorges
Dam is affecting India and Bangladesh
The Three Gorges Dam is widely regarded
as China's water weapon against India.
While China's reputation for public works
is relatively poor.
Even though the country loves building
ambitiously, large projects,
the Three Gorges Dam will do
more than just affect
and disturb
the environmental balance
of its host country.
China's dam
frenzy will affect India
in more ways than one out of 718 billion
cubic meters of surface
water that flows out of Asia's
largest country.
347 billion cubic meters flows directly
into India.
Many Indian
rivers originate in Tibet,
including the Sutlej,
the Indus, the Causey
and one of India's largest
and mightiest rivers, the Brahmaputra.
With the constant
reengineering of cross-border river flow.
China controls the water quality
and quantity flowing in India.
The sight impediment of the Three Gorges
Dam constitutes a huge threat
to the biophysical vitality
of rivers and soil
fertility of downstream plains.
The dam could also lead to increased
flooding of Indian rivers
originating in China.
China's constant dam
construction is slowly
emerging as a water political war
against India.
The Three Gorges Dam slows down
the rotation of the earth.
Can a dam slow down
the rotation of the Earth?
Well, yes.
According to scientists,
Sudan,
like the Three Gorges
Dam, creates conditions that can do so.
The total surface area of the dam is 1045
square kilometers.
Flooding 632 square kilometers of land.
The reservoir contains 39.3
cubic kilometers of water,
weighing more
than 39 trillion kilograms
or 42 billion tons.
A shift in mass
the size of the Three Gorges
Dam affects the rotation of the earth
due to the moment of inertia.
This is the phenomenon of a rigid
rotating body concerning its rotation.
When 39 trillion
kilograms of water are raised, 175 metres
above sea level,
it will increase the Earth's
moment of inertia
and then slow down its rotation.
The effect is negligible,
but even so, the fact that a dam can do
this is amazing.
And get this
according to NASA's calculation,
as such,
a shift in mass
will increase the length of a day
by 0.06 microseconds
and even make the Earth slightly rounder
in the middle and flatter on top.
That's not all.
It will also shift the pole position
by two centimetres.
And all that
because of a dam built by China.
China loves giant megaprojects,
but most violate human
and environmental rights
and ultimately fail
with the Three Gorges Dam.
Only time will tell how
successful or how destructive
this massive project is going to be.
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