THREE GORGES DAM
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The Three Gorges Dam is not a recent development. The development of a dam in the Yangtze River for power generation purposes has been suggested and debated since 1919, when Sun Yatsen first proposed building the dam. The idea was shelved due to unfavorable political and economic conditions but major floods resurrected the idea and the government adopted it in 1954 for flood control. Li Rui, Vice minister of Electric Power, suggested that the dam should be multipurpose and that smaller dams should be built first until China could afford a project like the Three Gorges Dam. Later, Li Rui concluded that the dam should not be built at all since it would be too costly. He added that the dam would also flood many cities and fertile farmland, subject the middle and lower reaches of the river to catastrophic flooding during construction and would not contribute much to shipping. The Sichuan province also objected since this province being upstream would have to shoulder most of the cost while downstream Hubei province would receive most of the benefits. After decades of debate, former Premier Li Peng pushed the project through the National People's Congress in April 1992. Construction began on 1993 with their first task, diverting the river's flow.
The project will be located between Sandouping, Yichang, and the Hubei province...