If China's Three Gorges Dam were as large as the controversy surrounding it, this would surely be the biggest dam in the world. Although it is the world's largest in terms of electrictiy production and overall investment, it is not the biggest dam in the world. A close comparison in terms of size would be the Grand Coulee Dam in the U.S. which is slightly larger.
This is not to understate the impact the dam will have on China's future development in terms of flood control, increased trade on the upper reaches of the Yangzi, and of course reduced energy prices.
The multiple aims of a massive Yangzi River dam have made this an enticing proposition for nearly a century. Sun Yat Sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic, supported the idea when it was first mooted in 1919. Chairman Mao, an avid poet, expressed his vision of the Three Gorges Dam in the following poem:
"Swimming" by Mao Zedong
"I have just drunk the waters of Changsha
And come to eat the fish of Wuchang.
Now I am swimming across the great Yangtze,
Looking afar to the open sky of Chu.
Let the wind blow and waves beat,
Better far than idly strolling in a courtyard.
Today I am at ease.
"It was by a stream that the Master said -
"Thus so things flow away!""
Sails move with the wind.
Tortoise and Snake are still.
Great plans are afoot:
A bridge will fly to span the north and south,
Turning a deep chasm into a thoroughfare;
Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west
To hold back Wushan's clouds and rain
Till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges.
The mountain goddess if she is still there
Will marvel at a world so changed."
In line 17, Chairman Mao makes clear reference to his ambitions for The Three Gorges Reservoir. It was his enthusiasm, along with that of Zhou Enlai, that precipitated the construction in the 1970s of the Gezhouba Dam on the Yangzi, the precursor to The Three Gorges Dam. It was Premier Li Peng however who, in 1990, forcefully pushed the Three Gorge Dam project back to center stage.
Conceived on an epic scale, but clouded in controversy, this will be one of the largest dams in the world for many decades to come.
Sights Pictrue 
Comment
