Controversies surrounding the massive Three Gorges Dam - which was once again in the international headlines last week - have stirred up an old debate on the mainland about the pros and cons of building dams.
But environmentalists say Beijing's rare admission that there are downsides to the colossal dam project, viewed by many as the mainland's biggest white elephant, has come a bit too late, with dire predictions about the social and environmental havoc it could cause starting to come true.
A current example is one of the worst droughts seen on the mainland in decades, affecting millions of people in downstream areas along the Yangtze River. It is widely believed that the drought has been aggravated by the dam, which holds back water during the dry season to fill its vast reservoir for power generation.
It has proved to be the Achilles heel of all big dams. Billed as a clean and effective solution to the country's power shortages, the Three Gorges and other mega-dams built on the upper reaches of the Yangtze and its tributaries have done exactly the opposite of what the public were told to expect.
They release flood water during the rainy season because of safety concerns, dealing a heavy blow to their much-touted flood-taming role. And even more embarrassingly, they then have to scramble for limited water resources during prolonged droughts.
Combining all that with deadly landslides, massive silt build-up, devastating environmental impacts and problems associated with huge resettlement schemes leads many geological and environmental experts to believe that the innate risks plaguing big dams are almost impossible to tackle.
