Disgorging
At the world’s largest dam, the operation is successful but the patient is dying
OUTSIDE China, the monster Three Gorges dam across the Yangzi river is one of the most reviled engineering projects ever built. It is blamed for fouling the environment and causing great suffering among the 1.2m people who were relocated to make way for its reservoir. Inside China, officials insist that the dam is an “unsung hero” (in the recent words of the Yangzi’s chief of flood control). But controversy over the project occasionally flares. Amid the country’s worst flooding in years, it is doing so again.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Disgorging”
China July 30th 2016
From the July 30th 2016 edition
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