China prepares for another disaster, this time ‘man-made’, as Chinese authorities opened the floodgates to the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest power station, as levels rise. This has been reported to be the worst flood in China in a hundred years, with the Yangtze River threatening to flood half of China.
Millions of people have been evacuated, as people are comparing this to the biblical flood. It has already inundated most of the Hubei province, and the waters are steadily moving towards the eastern part of China. Global Times reported that China is fighting a severe flood disaster that has hit more than 20 million people in southern China. The Three Gorges Dam has contributed to mitigating the flood. At 8:00 pm on Sunday, the Yangtze River’s second flood of this year steadily passed the Three Gorges Dam.
The Three Gorges Dam has been problematic ever since its conception, and has been constantly berated by experts worldwide for its poor construction and strength. This dam, if it collapses, has the ability to completely submerge the entirety of southern China. The dam was a pet project of the late Premier Li Peng and a monumental pride of the nation when it blocked and diverted Asia’s largest river in 1997.