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The EnGineeRinG MiRacLe: The World’s largest Hydroelectric Power Station and World’s Largest Concret
Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) just west of the city of Yichang in Hubei province, China.
It is 2,335 metres (7,660 feet) long with a maximum height of 185 metres (607 feet). It is built entirely of steel and concrete, and during its construction it used 510,000 tons of steel.
The total capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 22,500 MW as the dam houses 32 big turbines and 2 small generators for supplying electricity to the plant itself.
According to the engineers and designers, the dam can withstand an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter scale.
It will be able to reduce coal consumption by almost 31 million tonnes per year, which would end up resulting in 100 million tonnes less of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, one million tonnes less of sulphur dioxide, 370,000 tonnes less of nitric oxide, and one million tonnes less of dust.
The dam also was intended to protect millions of people from the periodic flooding.
The construction of the dam involves submerging of 13 cities, 140 towns and over 1,300 villages in the reservoir. About 1.5 million people had to vacate their homes for this purpose. About 1,300 known archaeological sites were lost forever under water.
Thousands of factories and mines were submerged which lead to mixing of toxins in the water. This resulted in life-threatening effects on the people and animals living in the region.
ThiNK about the LONG TERM benefits rather than SHORT TERM....