Flood of doubts: sceptical public questions Three Gorges Dam’s capacity to stop disasters
Project was touted as a tool to prevent floods but those claims have been watered down and new threats are eroding confidence - and riverbanks
Public doubts about the Three Gorges Dam’s role in flood control have resurfaced as communities along the Yantgze River, China’s longest waterway, battle the area’s worst floods since 1998.
The floods have wreaked havoc in the east, leaving 237 people dead and another 93 missing. That is on top of the 69 people killed when Typhoon Nepartak hit Fujian province on July 9.
More rain is forecast to hit the Yangtze River Basin this month, pushing flood defences to the limit 18 years after catastrophic floods in the vast catchment area took more than 4,000 lives.
Wuhan, midway along the Yangtze and home to about
11 million residents, has been particularly hard hit this year, prompting bitter questioning online about why major mainland cities had become increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather.
Many blamed poor urban planning and drainage while others put it down to land reclamation in wetlands to satisfy unbridled urban expansion over the past few decades.
Other critics raised doubts online about the Three Gorges Dam and its much-touted capacity to prevent floods. They circulated warnings by the late hydrologist Huang Wanli, who predicted that the dam would eventually fill with silt, and have to be demolished.