The current flood water that passes the Three Gorges Dam surpass that of the other floods in many years. it's even higher than that of the flood in 1998 that resulted in over 3000 death, and losses of over 167 bil RMB. An expert once said by preventing the recurrences of a flood matching the magnitude of the 1998's, the Three Gorges Dam would have more than recouped itself.English.news.cn 2012-07-25 15:06:28
Flood water is released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze River, in Yichang City, central China's Hubei Province, July 24, 2012. Due to the downpours in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest, the Three Gorges Dam experienced its largest flood peak this year on Tuesday, with a peak flow of 70,000 cubic meters of water per second. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)
YICHANG, Hubei, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The biggest flood peak in nine years smoothly passed the Three Gorges Dam as the waterflow into the dam receded on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday morning, the water inflow into the dam receded to 65,000 cubic meters per second -- 6,000 cubic meters per hour less than the peak flow, according to data released by China's Three Gorges Corporation.
And the water level in the dam rose to 160 meters, which is a new record for the dam's water depth in the flood season this year.
Water inflow into the dam area reached 71,200 cubic meters per second, which was a higher flow of water than during the devastating 1954 and 1998 Yangtze floods, on 8 p.m. Tuesday evening.
It was the biggest flood peak for the dam since its establishment in 2003. And the dam managed to reduce the force to just 43,000 cubic meters per second.
As the world's largest water hydropower project, the Three Gorges Project consists of a dam, a five-tier ship dock and a total of 32 hydropower turbo-generators.
The project generates electricity, controls flooding by providing storage space and adjusts shipping capacity on the river.
Built to tame annual Yangtze floods and generate power, the dam is capable of holding 22 billion cubic meters of water.
Related link: Biggest flood peak passes Three Gorges Dam
