Earthquake Repercussions Spur Rethinking of China’s Dam Building Strategy

One of the tragic ironies of the recent earthquake in China is that it has created numerous new, extremely dangerous dams in a country that already is the most dam-populated country on earth. At more than 85,000 dams and counting, Chinese leaders already boast of having the tallest dams, the largest by reservoir capacity, the dam with the highest ship lift, and the most powerful electricity producer. From arch dams, earthen dams, and gravity dams to cascade and concrete-faced rockfill dams, China has it all.
Today, the poster child for China’s highly risky dam strategy is the controversial Three Gorges Dam project—the largest hydroelectric plant on the planet. This project was fiercely opposed by scientists and environmentalists both within and outside of China. It is now the world’s biggest environmental catastrophe in the making.

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In fact, many other dams besides the Three Gorges are also deathtraps waiting to be sprung. According to a report by China’s Water Resource Department cited in the Epoch Times, 30,000 of China’s dams are in “critical condition,” and they “threaten over 400 cities” and almost 150 million people. That same report indicated that “3,484 dams collapsed from the year 1954 to year 2003”—an average of 71 collapses annually (Epoch Times, July 12, 2005).

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