After Chongqing was flooded, the flood resistance of the Three Gorges Dam is once again questioned

Translations, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

News (1)

 Reporter : Fu Mingzhen / Publisher : Sound Of Hope

Ref : https://www.soundofhope.org/post/414091 / Direct translation

Image : Video Screenshot

From 18 to 20 August 2020, the Yangtze River No. 5 flood and the Jialing River No. 2 flood passed through the central city of Chongqing. Wherever the floods went, many places were flooded. The Chongqing authorities initiated Level I emergency response for the first time in history. The Three Gorges opened 11 flood outlets. Chongqing is still flooded. The flood control capabilities of the Three Gorges are once again questioned.

Recently, the main urban area of ​​Chongqing has suffered a catastrophic flood. According to data from the Yangtze River Hydrological Network of the Mainland, at 8.15 am on 20 August, the water level of the Cuntan Hydrological Station reached a peak of 191.62 meters, which exceeded the guaranteed water level of 8.12 meters, the highest in a century.

Mainland Chinese media reported that more than 260,000 people were affected in the city, more than 20,000 shops were flooded, and many landmarks such as Ciqikou, Nanbin Road and Chaotianmen were all soaked in water.

The Three Gorges has opened 11 flood outlets for the first time, with a discharge flow of 49,200 cubic meters per second, refreshing historical records. Chongqing, located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, suffers from floods. The flood resistance of the Three Gorges Dam has also been questioned again by the outside world. Dr. Wang Weiluo told Deutsche Welle that the flood control benefits of the Three Gorges Project do not include protecting Chongqing, "because any reservoir dam cannot protect upstream cities by blocking floods or reducing flood peaks. It is not threatened by floods, but by raising the natural water level at the dam site, the upstream cities are more threatened by floods and flood disasters are more severe."

"The Beijing News" reported on 20 August that Chongqing is in the upper reaches and must perform the task of intercepting floods. If not intercepted, the areas east of Chongqing and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be washed away. Including Jingjiang, Yueyang, Jiujiang and the entire Hanzhong area, the lives and property of hundreds of millions of people are involved.

Dr. Wang Weiluo, an expert on the Three Gorges dam problem who lives in Germany, said that the upper reaches of the Three Gorges hope to release water, and the downstream hopes to get stuck. "Standing at the position of the Three Gorges, what should it do? Should it release or not?

Wang Weiluo pointed out, "During this year's floods, the so-called flood control benefits of the Three Gorges Project were disappointing, far lower than the flood control benefits promised to the Chinese people by politicians and others before and after the decision on the Three Gorges Project."

Earlier, David Shankman, a professor of geography at the University of Alabama, who was dedicated to studying floods in the Yangtze River in China, also pointed out that the Three Gorges Reservoir could not cope with such severe floods this year. He said: "The total flood control capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir is only a small part of the total flood volume downstream of the dam and the middle of the Yangtze River. So can it accommodate part of the flood? Yes. But under severe conditions like the present, it cannot function with effective effect."

Huang Guanhong, the son of the famous Chinese water engineering expert Huang Wanli, said in an exclusive interview with NTDTV that his father Huang Wanli opposed the construction of the dam at the Three Gorges Dam construction evaluation meeting because of the fact that Chongqing and Wuhan are on the main rivers of the two major cities. The construction of dams is not allowed", even if they are built, they cannot prevent summer floods, and this is the biggest flaw in the design of the Three Gorges Dam.

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News (2)

Reporter : Li Dayu / Publisher : New Tang Dynasty Television

Ref : https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/08/22/a102923914.html

The floods in China this year are extremely fierce. Take Chongqing as an example. The No. 5 flood of the Yangtze River from the 18 to 20 August flooded the central city and the area along the Yangtze River in Chongqing as it passed through Chongqing. The relevant locations issued notices on 19 August, asking residents to be prepared. They must prepare for water, power and gas outages for five consecutive days. 

More than 260,000 people have been affected in Chongqing and more than 20,000 shops have been flooded. Many people say that this is the first time they have seen such a flood in their lives. In the face of these disasters, we cannot deny that part of this is due to the continuous rainstorms. However, when people think about how to deal with these disasters, they also rationally find that these cannot be blamed on the rain. Overseas media have been reflecting on it, digging deep into the "man-made disaster" that caused this year's floods.

"Voice of America" ​​mentioned such an example in its report. When reporting on the flood, the official mainland media quoted a native of Sichuan who said, "This is a natural disaster and there is no way." Yesterday when we saw Li Keqiang visiting Chongqing, there were also audiences who seemed to recite their lines. In front of Li Keqiang, they repeatedly emphasized that this is a "natural disaster."

The Voice of America report believes that the use of "natural disasters" to describe floods by state media "seems to be desalinating the unnatural causes of flooding", such as soil erosion, poor quality of flood drainage infrastructure, etc. .

For example, Miao Chunjiang, a native of Chengdu, said that this year’s Sichuan floods have exceeded 98 years, and the authorities have built so many large and small hydropower stations in Sichuan, which are all damage to the natural environment. 

According to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency, Sichuan is known as the "province of a thousand rivers" and has abundant water resources. So far, the province has 8184 reservoirs. However, the management officials of these reservoirs always proceed from their own interests and ignore the environment. At the same time, Miao Chunjiang complained that the domestic media did not have enough coverage of the flood, and that little incidents of the Chinese Communist Party would be reported lavishly, but they rarely mentioned such a major flood.

The report of Deutsche Welle also pointed to man-made disasters in the floods and focused on Chongqing and the Three Gorges Dam.

The report pointed out that when Chongqing was hit by the Yangtze River flood on 5 August, the sun was clear and it was not rainy and overcast in other places. Therefore, Chongqing was severely flooded due to other reasons. 

An official of the Yangtze River Committee of the Mainland said that there are three reasons for the floods. Firstly, there is continuous rainfall on the upper reaches of Chongqing. Secondly, the Minjiang, Tuojiang, Jialing and Fujiang rivers converge with the Yangtze River in Chongqing. Thirdly, the high water levels caused by the previous flood peaks have not receded. The three reasons he mentioned actually meant that there were too many floods in the upper reaches of Chongqing and Chongqing itself was flooded due to high water levels.

In fact, in order to protect the area below the Three Gorges, the mainland's water conservancy officials adopted a cascade joint dispatch method for flood control, and the reservoirs in the upper reaches of Chongqing began to store water. This is done to prevent the amount of water reaching the Three Gorges from exceeding 87,500 cubic meters per second, and the maximum flow that the Three Gorges can withstand is 102,500 cubic meters. 

In other words, with the cooperation of the upstream reservoirs, if the Three Gorges discharges floods at full capacity, the floods in Chongqing should be greatly reduced.

Moreover, the Three Gorges Dam has a total of 23 discharge outlets. If all of them are opened, it is more likely to keep Chongqing from being flooded. However, according to currently known reports, there are only 11 discharge outlets at most. When the flood peak reaches Chongqing, the amount of water entering the reservoir is 76,000 cubic meters per second, and the amount of water leaving the reservoir is 48,000 cubic meters. This kind of flood discharge scale cannot protect Chongqing at all.

However, experts from the Continental Hydropower Engineering Society said that Chongqing’s flooding has nothing to do with the Three Gorges Reservoir, because to protect Chongqing, one must start with the upstream reservoir of Chongqing. However, this explanation conflicts with the flood control capabilities of the Three Gorges Dam promised by the CCP politicians.

However, in this flood, Chongqing has not received strong protection from its upstream reservoirs. Instead, it has become a "victim" that must be protected in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River below the Three Gorges. 

The “Beijing News” reported that the reservoirs on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River must be blocked and dispatched, and Chongqing must also perform the task of intercepting floods in the upstream. Otherwise, Wuhan and the big cities along the Yangtze River will not be able to keep it. The maximum water flow of the Yangtze River that Wuhan can withstand is 61,000 cubic meters per second, and it will be flooded if it exceeds it.

Therefore, in the face of major floods, the Chongqing region must help the upstream to stop the floods, and the Three Gorges Dam, in order to protect the downstream, did not dare to excessively release water. Most of the 23 flood outlets became decorations. In this way, Chongqing could not be flooded.

"Deutsche Welle" questioned in the report that if every time a flood comes, it is necessary to argue whether to protect Chongqing or Wuhan, it is difficult for people not to question the flood prevention capabilities promised by the Three Gorges Project.