Three Gorges Project Improves Navigation on Yangtze

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 16, 2003

Three Gorges Project Improves Navigation on Yangtze

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The Three Gorges Project, the world's largest hydro-electric project, is expected to improve navigation on the Yangtze River and boost the economy in the river valleys, according to experts in charge of its construction.

After 10 years of construction, the Three Gorges reservoir began storing water on June 1 this year, and the water level reached 135 meters on June 10, five days ahead of schedule.

Trial navigation via the permanent lock at the Three Gorges Project began Monday and is expected to last for about one year.

The filling of the reservoir will open more sections of the Yangtze to 10,000-ton steamers, according to Zhang Qingsong, an navigation expert and director of the Yangtze River Navigation Management Bureau.

Statistics show that more than 420 km of the navigabal course upstream the reservoir have become wider and deeper as a result of the filling of the reservoir.

One of the world's major rivers and China's longest, the Yangtze boasts the longest navigabal course, at over 2,800 km, and it handles 80 percent of the total cargo transported via China's rivers.

In the past, only the section between Shanghai at the estuary of the Yangtze and Wuhan City in central China permitted the passage of 10,000-ton ships. The section between Wuhan and Yichang, on the middle reaches of the river, can accomodate only 3,000-ton steamers, and the Yichang-Chongqing section is accessible only to 1,500-ton ships, due to submerged rocks, a shallow river bed and swift currents.

Since the filling of the reservoir, the depth of the section between Yichang and Chongqing has increased by 40 percent, the width has doubled and the speed of the current has cut by 50 percent, said Zhang Qingsong.

Since the water level in the reservoir rose to 135 meters, the navigable courses of a dozen tributaries of the Yangtze has increased by more than 500 km.

The cost of navigation on the river is also dropping significantly as navigation conditions improve.

The navigation cost between Yichang and Chongqing has been reduced by between 35 and 37 percent compared to the cost prior tothe filling of the reservoir.

The 6,300-km Yangtze River runs through 11 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions before it empties into the East China Sea. They are Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai.

With a population of 400 million, the Yangtze River valleys generate more than one-third of China's gross domestic product (GDP).

Apart from its role in improving navigation on the river, the Three Gorges Project has also boosted econoimc development in the areas over the past 10 years.

The GDP in the reservoir area has grown by 2.2 times, revenue by 1.8 times and the per capita income of farmers by 2.1 times over the past 10 years. Per capita floor space has also grown by 20 sq m, according to statistics from the local governments.

Prior to the construction of the project, 80 percent of the 16 million rural residents in the reservoir area lived under the poverty line, and 17 of the 20 counties in the reservoir area were on the list of poverty-stricken counties.

In 1990, per capita income in the reservoir was only 54.9 percent of the national average.

The Three Gorges will soon be playing various important roles in addition to alleviating poverty. This year, it will begin to play a role in flood control, power generation, navigation, water diversion and environmental protection.

Two power generating units will begin operating in August to provide a total of 5.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity this year to central and east China, where power supply is insufficient.

Construction of the Three Gorges Project began in 1993, with an estimated total investment of 180 billion yuan (21.8 billion US dollars).

By 2009, when the whole project is completed, 26 power generating units with a combined capacity of 18.2 million kilowatts will be operational, generating nearly 20 billion yuan (2.4 billion US dollars) in revenue from the sales of electricity annually.

To develop the rich hydro-electric resources of the Yangtze, the Chinese government has authorized the China Yangtze Three Gorges Development Co. to build four hydro-electric power stations on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze. The four power stations boast a combined generating capacity of 38.5 million kilowatts.

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