Sooner Safer Happier

In 1992 the representatives of China’s National People’s Congress voted to build a hydroelectric dam at the site of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River. Engineers drew up their plans. Work got underway. A small cofferdam was built to create a channel that would divert the flow of China’s most powerful river. A new ship lock on the left bank allowed navigation to continue. Five years after the vote to start the project, the flow of the Yangtze River was blocked. A second cofferdam was used to build the dam itself together with a power station. A permanent ship lock replaced the first lock. Ten years after the vote, the second cofferdam was removed ...