History

4/11/13 

Sun Yat-Sen first proposed an idea of the dam in 1919. The purpose was to stop the flooding of towns along the Yangtze River. It was to also serve as a symbol of the economic success of China that was to rival to Great Wall of China.

A plan of the Dam was designed in 1932; however, it was not until after World War II in 1944 that a model was designed with the assistance of the United States. One of the goals of the Dam was to raise the standard of living and increase employment in China.

The production of the dam never got off the ground floor due to the Chinese Civil War in 1947. The war caused the dam to lose support. It was not until the floods of the Yangtze River of the 1950s that talks of building the dam were resumed. In 1958, Mao Zedong advocated for the construction of the dam. He wanted China to have the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Due to Politics, the construction of the dam was not approved by the State Council until 1978.

This did not come without controversy. The Vice Minister of Electric Power, Li Rui, opposed the construction of the dam, fearing it would flood fertile soil and major cities. A proposal was made to build a series of smaller dams that would have less of an environmental impact. The proposal was turned down because one of the purposes of the dam was to serve as a national monument.

In 1989 the project was suspended because of pressures placed on the government. The government suppressed the critics and accused them of undermining the authority of the government. A vote was cast in order to decide to continue with the dam. The motion passed with 67% of the votes in favor of the dam, the lowest decision to pass a bill in China’s history.

Construction began on the dam on December 14, 1994 and was finished in 2008, but the last generator was not put in place until 2012. Throughout that time 1.3 million people have been moved from the 1045 square kilometer area where the reservoir has been placed. The dam generates 22.5 gigawatts at full capacity.

By: Liam Brennan