Video: Three Gorges Dam

Transcription:

At more than 3900 miles long, the Yangtze is China's greatest river, and the world's third longest,
behind only the Nile and the Amazon. For thousands of years, it has been a major trade route,
and central to Chinese life. But for much of China's history, this river has also been responsible
for destruction on a massive scale.

In 1998, three hundred million people were displaced by flood waters from the Yangtze. The cost
of repairs threatened the entire country's stability. But as they showed with the Great Wall, the
Chinese have never been afraid of taking on huge projects to make their country safe. At the
Three Gorges, on the Yangtze, they have decided to try and tame this vast river once and for all,
behind a giant dam.

In 1994, the engineers began blasting. In 12 months, they detonated more than 80,000 sticks of
dynamite. Since then, more than 40,000 workers have toiled in continuous 24-hour shifts. Within
just 10 years, they built China's new great wall.

The Three Gorges Dam stands 610 feet high, and 1.3 miles across. It's as wide as the Golden
Gate Bridge is long, and twice as high. It's also the world's largest hydroelectric power station,
and its turbines produce enough energy to light up Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City
combined. When it hits full capacity, it will provide 10 percent of China's annual electricity needs.
In such a polluted country, the production of clean energy is a massive upside.

But there are also enormous downsides. As the 3 Gorges project propels China into the future,
the rising waters are also erasing its past. By the time it's finished in 2009, the dam will have
created a reservoir longer than the Grand Canyon and over 500 feet deep. Nearly 2 million
people will have been displaced and 4000 villages, 140 towns, and 13 cities will have been
swallowed up. Priceless archaeological discoveries and monuments to 5000 years of culture will
disappear, never to be seen again.

The dam stands as a spectacular testament to China's economic progress and its struggle to
control nature. But it is also a solemn monument to what will have to be left behind, silenced
forever, beneath the waters.

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