China's Three Gorges Dam's floodings won't be happening--thanks to the flood prevention measures, and now the dam is stable. Nikkei Asian Review reported that the Chinese authorities provided a warning on Friday, July 17, and issued new alerts in downstream cities to give them a heads up on what may happen as the water level rises.
Three lower floodgates of the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province opened as the inbound water flowrate reached 61,000 cubic meters per second as of Saturday. pic.twitter.com/NSdQTD3lSX — ವರ್ಧನ್ (@vn2dsr) July 19, 2020
Also Read: Recent Ridgecrest Quake Triples Chances for the 'Big One' to Happen Soon: Study
The previous floodings overwhelmed the cities in the country's central region along the Yangtze River, China's longest river, in the past week during the annual monsoon season. 433 rivers across the country were flooded, thus, causing deaths of 141 people, while others are missing.
Also Read: Mysterious Pink Ice in the Italian Alps may Actually Bring Harm to the Environment
The average rainfall increased by 12% higher than last year because of the heavy rains affecting the region since last month. Some reports estimated that the previous floodings might have led to economic damage that costs $12 billion or 86.2 billion yuan.
The recent floodings in the Three Gorges Dam came after China's economy just recovered in the second quarter. On Wednesday, July 15, the government announced to conduct measures to deal with the floods, which cost $1.4 billion or 1.7 billion yuan.
China's Three Gorges Dam is now stable
Global Times reported that the Three Gorges Dam are now stable, thanks to its flood prevention measures. The operator confirmed that the Three Gorges Dam are currently working to ease the flood prevention pressure in the Yangtze River's middle and downstream areas.
When the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006, China proudly claimed it could hold back the worst flood in 10,000 years.
Today the dam is at risk of collapse with 400 million lives in danger.
The CCP recently opened all floodgates - what happens next is out of their control. pic.twitter.com/ZyoKVtIUHh — Things China Doesn't Want You To Know (@TruthAbtChina) July 13, 2020
The rising water levels were stopped after the Three Gorges Reservoir activated its flood peak reduction and flood retention. The dam is now stable after the rising water levels were eased in the Yangtze River's middle and lower reaches. The Three Gorges project is a multifunctional water control system consisting of the 185-meter-high and 2,309-meter long dam, 34 hydropower turbo-generators, and a five-tier ship lock.
The flood prevention project was applied three times on Friday, preventing 6.6 billion cubic meters of water, which is the same size of 470 West Lakes in Hangzhou. More than 20 million people were stricken, and more than 1.7 million were forced to relocate because of the floodings that affected several provincial regions.
Also Read: [BEWARE] 100-Year-Old Metal-Eating Bacteria Discovered: Should We be Scared?
