The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, has successfully contained the first large flood of this year with a capacity of 40,000 cubic meters per second thanks to the accurate scientific predictions and preparation, according to the operator on Wednesday.
The flood reached the Three Gorges Reservoir in Yichang, Central China’s Hubei Province at 8 pm, Monday. Before that, the operator of the project had lowered the water level of the reservoir and vacated a storage capacity of 800 million cubic meters to create ample capacity for the flood in advance, according to a statement sent from the Three Gorges Corp to the Global Times on Wednesday.
Due to the heavy rainfall recorded between July 9-11 in the upper stream and tributaries of the Yangtze River, the reservoir has seen a daily rise of the inflow of up to 10,000 cubic meters per second.
The Three Gorges Corp and local meteorological and hydrological departments started to prepare for flood containment a week ahead to ensure the safety of the project, said the statement.
In 2020, the Yangtze River encountered several rounds of heavy floods. The Three Gorges project, together with several cascade reservoirs, successfully contained a total of 38.8 billion cubic meters of floods, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total floods prevented in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze.
According to the Three Gorges Dam, the Wudongde Reservoir, another large hydropower project at the upstream of the Yangtze River, has been able to join the joint flood containment together with the Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba dams in the flood season of 2021. The dams will work with the Three Gorges Dam to contain potential flooding in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Aerial photo taken on Aug. 20, 2020 shows floodwater gushing out from the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei Province. The Three Gorges Reservoir is undergoing the test of a record high inbound water flow on Wednesday since the reservoir was constructed in 2003. The inbound flow reached 75,000 cubic meters per second around 8 a.m. as the peak floodwater of Yangtze River’s fifth flood of the year arrived at the dam. Photo:Xinhua
