Three Gorges Dam

Dam being built to harness the power of the Chang Jiang. It will create a reservoir 600 km/370 mi long and its turbines will have a 18,000 megawatt capacity (eight times the capacity of Egypt's Aswan Dam). Construction began in December 1994.

In November 1997 the last gap in the main channel of the Chang Jiang River was blocked, and the water forced into a man-made channel.

The Three Gorges Dam will be the world's largest dam and hydroelectric power station, and will save the central and lower river valley from annual flooding. The dam will be 2,309 m/7,575 ft long and 175 m/574 ft high, raising the water level in the Three Gorges area by 40-50 m. The major technical problem to be overcome is siltation, as 530 million tonnes of silt is carried down in the river every year, and much of this will be trapped behind the dam walls. The project is scheduled for completion by about 2009 and will cost $22-34 billion. More than a million homes will be lost during the process, which will involve the resettlement of up to 1.8 million people in the Hubei and Sichuan provinces.