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Preface
When it comes to water conservancy projects on the mainland, the first thing that comes to mind is the Three Gorges Dam, which has a history of more than 20 years since its completion and commissioning.
However, as for the Three Gorges Dam, some people say that it is a great construction that will benefit future generations, and some people say that it is a huge "mess" that has cost more than 250 billion yuan.
So, how much value has been created since the Three Gorges Dam was built?
Is the Three Gorges Dam worth it?
Before the Three Gorges Dam was built, the Yangtze River flooded the mainland many times, and since the 20th century alone, there have been five major floods, an average of once every 20 years.
In the summer of 1998, the Yangtze River basin was hit by a catastrophic flood that had not been seen in a century, affecting tens of millions of people in Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and other places, and causing direct economic losses of more than 200 billion yuan.
Without the Three Gorges Project, the two floods of 2010 and 2012 alone would have caused trillions of yuan in losses to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In addition, the Three Gorges is the largest power station in the world that uses hydropower to generate electricity, with more than 20 million kilowatt-hours of power generated inside the dam alone, and nearly 90 billion kWh of electricity per year.
Not only that, the completion of the Three Gorges Dam has also provided indelible contributions to the mainland's shipping.
After the completion of the dam, the length of the waterway from Yichang to Chongqing has been shortened by 150 kilometers, the tonnage of ships has increased by nearly 10 times, the annual cargo volume has increased by nearly 5 times, and the shipping sales volume has increased by a full 60%.
In addition, through scientific scheduling, the Three Gorges Project also plays an irreplaceable role in replenishing and diverting water.
For example, during the flood season, the Three Gorges Reservoir can "cut the peak and fill the valley" of the Yangtze River, which can not only prevent floods but also protect navigation; In the dry season, the discharge flow can be increased to ensure the production and domestic water supply in the middle and lower reaches.
It is estimated that after the Three Gorges Project is put into normal operation, the average annual water shortage of cities and farmlands in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be reduced by more than 2 billion cubic meters, which will greatly guarantee the mainland's utilization of water resources.
However, opponents point out that the cost of the project has increased significantly due to the use of ultra-high standards of construction. In addition, a large amount of follow-up expenditure has been incurred in the areas of resettlement and maintenance of the reservoir area.
The Three Gorges Project is a water conservancy project with the largest construction scale, the largest investment, and the most complex construction conditions since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Since the start of the project, the construction standards have been described as "world-class".
According to statistics, the amount of concrete poured alone has reached more than 20 million cubic meters, and as many as 2.1 million tons of steel have been used to build dams, with a total investment of more than 200 billion yuan.
In order to ensure the normal operation of funds, the feed-in tariff of the Three Gorges Power Station was set at 0.25 yuan per kilowatt-hour, much higher than the average electricity price of other hydropower stations in China at that time.
But even then, the Three Gorges Project is estimated to take one or two decades to become profitable, and this forecast does not take into account a series of follow-up expenses such as resettlement and reservoir management. This undoubtedly increases the difficulty of balancing the project's revenues and expenditures.
According to statistics, there are 20 cities and towns directly submerged or affected by the Three Gorges Reservoir area, and nearly 700 rural areas, with as many as 1.2 million people in need of relocation. In order to properly resettle these migrants, the central and local governments have invested nearly 100 billion yuan.
The Three Gorges Reservoir area is vast, spanning Chongqing and Hubei provinces and cities, with a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers of shoreline.
Taking reservoir bank protection as an example, there are more than 1,900 kilometers of coastline in the Chongqing reservoir area alone that need to be managed, with a total investment of more than 40 billion yuan, and nearly 250 billion yuan has been spent on miscellaneous capital investment.
So what is the income of the Three Gorges, which was built at such a large cost?
Proceeds from the dam
According to statistics, by the end of 2021, the Three Gorges Hydropower Station had produced more than 1.3 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to creating economic benefits of 325 billion yuan at 0.25 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
In addition, tourism in the Three Gorges is booming, according to the latest estimates, in the first two decades after its completion, the total amount paid by tourists in the Three Gorges area alone exceeded 20 billion.
On paper, direct revenues from power generation and tourism have exceeded investment in engineering
Some experts estimate that if all costs are taken into account, the Three Gorges Project will need to run for at least another 10 years before it can achieve a real financial balance.
Of course, the significance of the Three Gorges Project must not be measured simply by money. It is difficult to show the tremendous benefits it has played in flood prevention and drought control and the optimal allocation of water resources.
Moreover, with the continuous improvement of the mainland's economic and social development level, the value created by the Three Gorges Project will continue to expand in the future. I believe that when we look at this investment in a few years, we will have a more comprehensive and objective judgment.
So what can the Three Gorges Dam bring us beyond the benefits?
The strategic significance of the Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Project has not only created tremendous economic benefits, but has also played an irreplaceable strategic role in many fields related to the national economy and people's livelihood.
This first point is also the original intention of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam - to rationally control the Yangtze River.
The upstream region has 80% of the basin's hydropower resources, while the middle and lower reaches account for more than 90% of the basin's population and cultivated land.
It is estimated that after the normal operation of the Three Gorges, it will provide nearly 20 billion cubic meters of high-quality water for the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project every year, accounting for more than 80 percent of the annual water diversion of the middle route project.
In this sense, the Three Gorges Project is not only a power station, but also a water diversion hub that has a bearing on the whole country, and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam has greatly adjusted the distribution of water resources on the mainland and provided more favorable conditions for the mainland's development.
Secondly, as mentioned above, the shipping conditions on the mainland have been greatly improved.
The emergence of the Three Gorges Dam has made the water depth of the channel less than 1.5 meters in the dry season, but now it is stable at more than 5 meters, which makes the Yichang-Chongqing section of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River a golden water transport channel.
A simple statistic illustrates the problem: before the completion of the Three Gorges Project, the annual freight volume of this section of the river was less than 30 million tons, but now it has exceeded 100 million tons, making it the world's largest inland waterway transport.
More importantly, with the realization of "direct access to the river and sea", minerals, energy and agricultural products in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River can be directly transported to coastal ports through water transportation and then sold to all over the world. This has led to the take-off of the entire Yangtze River Economic Belt.
In addition, it has been observed that the sediment content of the main stream of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has dropped by more than 90% in recent years, the water quality has improved significantly, and the aquatic ecological environment has generally improved.
At the same time, through scientific scheduling, the Three Gorges Project can also impound and store water from the upper reaches and increase the amount of available water resources in the middle and lower reaches, which will also provide a more comprehensive convenience for the residents of the Yangtze River basin on the mainland.
Thirteen years ago, the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River basin replenished more than 40 billion cubic meters of water and comprehensively resisted the occurrence of drought.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the Three Gorges Project is by no means a short-term project that can be accomplished overnight, but a century-old project that will benefit the present generation and the future generations.
According to the design, the design service life of the main project of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station is 100 years, and the service life of the concrete buildings can reach more than 300 years, which means that it will continue to play a role in a fairly long historical period and benefit the Chinese nation.
epilogue
After 20 years of development, the Three Gorges Project, with its tremendous comprehensive benefits and far-reaching strategic significance, has written a strong and colorful stroke in the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
This magnificent project has not only created tremendous material wealth in flood prevention and drought control, optimal allocation of water resources, and clean energy development, but has also demonstrated the spirit of the Chinese people in the struggle to overcome difficulties, and has gathered the majestic force of national rejuvenation in the practice of innovation.
Primary sources
Jintou.com "Return to the capital and make a profit!" The Three Gorges Dam, with an investment of nearly 250 billion yuan, can earn 100 million yuan per day in photovoltaic fees.