The awsome Three Gorges DamProblem – Solution
Choose one recent “Engineering disaster” that has affected the environment in your/one country and explain how it could be avoided.
Choose one recent “Engineering disaster” that has affected the environment in your/one country and explain how it could be avoided.
The Three Gorges Dam (长江三峡大坝)hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century and the largest hydro-electric power station in the world is a Chinese hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze river in China. The Three Gorges Dam is able to produce a total of 22,500 megawatts of electricity which is 20 times more than the Hoover Dam in America. The dam is able to control floods down at the Yangtze River and help reduce flooding in important cities like Wuhan which suffered flooding in 1954 and 1998 killing over 30,000 people in total. But recently, engineers have admitted The Three Gorges Dam is a disaster in the making. Already, the quality of water in the higher banks of Yangtze River is falling slowly. This is due the preventing dispersal of pollutants caused by the dam. Pollutant such as algal blooms have risen progressively and soil erosion around the dam has increased, causing riverbank collapses and landslides. The dam is also causing a negative impact to the natural biodiversity around the surrounding river. Endangered wildlife species like the Yangtze dolphin and the Siberian Crane are all at risk due to the drastic change and destruction of their habitat. The government has since realize the problem and are placing preventive measures to prevent further deterioration. The government has invested heavily in programs designed to restore and conserve the ecology of the Three Gorges area in recent years, including 12 billion yuan spent on trying to harness geological disasters such as landslides. They have also closed or relocated 1,500 manufacturing ventures constructed more than 70 sewage disposal and waste treatment plants and resettled about 70,000 people from disaster-prone areas. I feel that the government could have done more studies and place more scenarios before engaging such enormous project. But better late than never, they have started in the preventive measure which is better than doing nothing.
5 comments:
Thank you, Ken, for this very informative discussion. You summarize the nature of the dam well. You also outline the problems clearly and mention how some of these might have been avoided. I want you to look at this again though with a cautious eye on two aspects: 1) puntuation, and especially your use (or lack of use) of commas, and 2) the use of part participle verbs in perfect tense verb phrases. You do a good job overall, but there are a few places where you have some errors.
Thanks, man!
Hi Ken,
Yup, i agree with you that prevention is actually much better than cure. However, since what done is already done, we should look at how we could address the problem.
Technology advances have indeed brought us more convenience, but nevertheless, adverse impacts are sometime unavoidable.
Nice reading your post. Very detailed and informative =)
I personally not support the build of the "Three Gorges Dam" because it will cover a lot of history places. Even though i'm not born in China, as a chinese,i love my race's culture, especially China that already have thousand years of history.
all i can say is that everything have both side the good and the evil. in this case is the creation verse the destruction.
This is always a controversial issue. China government said that the benefit is larger than the damage. No one really knows what will happen. I think it should take some years to see its work and give a conclusion.
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