The Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project is the largest water conservancy hub in China, with a cost of 203.9 billion yuan

The Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project is the largest water conservancy hub in China, with a cost of 203.9 billion yuan.

The Three Gorges spans the Yangtze River, approximately 2.3 kilometers long and 185 meters high, with a total capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters. The highest water storage level was once as high as 175 meters, equivalent to the height of a 65 story building.

Since the Three Gorges Dam has an astonishing water storage capacity, how long will it take to fully discharge if all the valves are opened?

Will the Three Gorges run out of water have an impact on our lives?

The Past and Present Lives of the Three Gorges Dam

As early as 1918, the visionary Mr. Sun Yat sen proposed to build a huge water conservancy hub near the Three Gorges in order to revitalize the economy, in order to drive the economic development of the entire Yangtze River basin.

Unfortunately, this great idea was ultimately not realized due to the unstable environment of years of warfare at that time.

Until 1994, after rigorous argumentation by over 400 experts, the country finally decided to build this practical project in the Three Gorges.

The Three Gorges Hydropower Station is located in Sanduping, Yichang City, Hubei Province. It is an island on the river, covering an area of about 15000 square meters. It is about 300 meters away from the right bank of the Yangtze River and about 900 meters away from the left bank.

During the construction process of the dam, approximately 400000 acres of arable land were submerged, causing over a million local people to migrate and become outsiders.

However, the country did not mistreat them. In order to properly resettle these immigrants, the country invested 30 billion yuan, and it should be noted that the cost of the entire dam is only 50 billion yuan.

In addition to a huge amount of capital investment, the materials used in the Three Gorges Project are also eye-catching.

From the start of construction in 1994 to its completion in 2006, more than 40000 workers participated in the construction.

In the nearly ten year construction process, only the main building and diversion project used 130 million cubic meters of earth and rock, 27 million cubic meters of concrete, 460000 tons of steel bars, and 250000 tons of metal steel frames.

Many people are accustomed to calling the Three Gorges Reservoir, but in fact, it is more like a giant artificial lake.

The Three Gorges Dam is the main project of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station, with a total length of approximately 3.335 kilometers. The main project of the river blocking dam is 2.335 kilometers long and approximately 181 meters high.

After the dam was built, the main stream of the Yangtze River was cut off. As a result, we successfully regulated the water volume of the Yangtze River.

Since ancient times, the Yangtze River has been one of the areas with the most severe flood disasters in China. Every city in the basin faces varying degrees of water scarcity in winter and floods caused by surging rainfall and melting icebergs upstream in summer.

According to the research of hydrologists and historians, once every 120 years in history, there will be a severe drought period in the Yangtze River. After the reform and opening up, the Yangtze River officially entered a humid period, which will last for about 100 years.

Therefore, over the past 30 years, it can be seen that the Yangtze River is often subject to floods, the most serious of which is the catastrophic flood in 1998. This flood has affected a wide range, and even the the Pearl River basin has a once-in-a-century flood.

After the end of this flood, 200 million people in China were displaced, many industrial and mining enterprises were forced to shut down, and China's direct economic losses exceeded 200 billion yuan.

If the Three Gorges could be completed in 1998, the 98 flood may not be as severe.

In 2006, the Three Gorges Water Control Project was completed. Since then, the Yangtze River flood that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years has been alleviated.

The terrifying storage capacity of the Three Gorges Dam

Due to the original intention of the Three Gorges Dam construction to regulate the water volume of the Yangtze River, the water storage capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was designed in advance.

According to data, the maximum storage capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 39.3 billion cubic meters. After its completion, the Three Gorges Dam underwent four experimental impoundments.

As of 2022, the maximum water level of the Three Gorges has reached 173.35 meters, with a storage capacity of 6.8 billion cubic meters, which is less than half of the design capacity of the Three Gorges.

After more than ten years of experimental water storage, it has not yet reached half of the storage capacity of the Three Gorges. Does this mean that the design capacity was set too high during the construction process, which would have been divorced from reality?

Actually, this extra capacity is reserved for the flood season of the Yangtze River.

Under normal circumstances, the flow rate of water from the Yangtze River entering the Three Gorges Dam is around 15000 cubic meters per second. When the flood season arrives, this value will increase exponentially.

So, designing a super large capacity is to better block pressure downstream during the flood season.

For better flood control, the Three Gorges Reservoir has set 63 gates in the middle section of the river bed. These gates are all Gravity dam made of special concrete materials. The flood discharge mode is bucket flip flow, including 22 gates with a diameter of 8 meters and 23 gates with a diameter of 9 meters.

At the edge, the Three Gorges Dam has also designed 9 auxiliary gates.

When the flood season approaches, if all the gates of the Three Gorges Dam are opened for flood discharge, the maximum water flow speed will jump from the usual 15000 cubic meters per second in an instant to 79000 cubic meters per second.

The total capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir is 39.3 billion cubic meters, with one inlet and one outlet.

By calculation, we can conclude that it will take approximately six days for the Three Gorges Dam to discharge all the water inside when it is full.

This data is only experimental data. If combined with reality, as the inventory water volume continues to decrease, the flood discharge speed of the reservoir will also slow down.

So it will take about three more days for the Three Gorges Reservoir to fully discharge its water without any increase, which means the total time will fluctuate in nine days.

The above data prediction is only based on the situation where the water volume in and out of the Three Gorges is only limited. If it is flood discharge at the same time, the water in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is constantly replenished to the Three Gorges at a rate of 15000 cubic meters per second. The Three Gorges Reservoir discharges the water while releasing it,It will take about 24 days to drain all the water in the reservoir.

Of course, all the data are only experimental and a hypothesis based on flood discharge and water supply. We cannot verify whether this data is feasible or true

Because in reality, as the ultimate water conservancy hub project in China, the Three Gorges Reservoir cannot completely discharge all the water stored in the reservoir area.

If this is the case, the huge amount of water will cause enormous pressure on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At that time, the coastal areas will be submerged due to the sudden rise in water levels, and an important urban center area will even disappear.

In addition, if all the water in the Three Gorges is discharged, it may have a significant impact on the operation of the whole country.

What is the impact of lighting up the water in the Three Gorges Dam

Since its completion, the Three Gorges has been continuously developing, and its functions are no longer just flood control and discharge. It also plays a crucial role at the economic level.

Firstly, the Yangtze River is a famous "golden waterway", and it is the most active and developed economic belt in China.

Every year, a large number of ships shuttle on the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is in the subtropical monsoon climate as a whole, with a lot of precipitation in summer and little precipitation in winter, which greatly affects the shipping work of the Yangtze River.

In winter, as the water level rapidly drops, some ships with larger tonnage may face the risk of grounding.

After the completion of the Three Gorges Reservoir, hydrological experts will use data to regularly release water in winter to increase the water level of the Yangtze River waterway, in order to ensure the navigation of the Yangtze River in winter.

Secondly, the Three Gorges is also a gathering place for rare fish in China.

Since 2020, China has implemented a 10-year fishing ban in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and banned any commercial fishing. Previously, many rare fish species in the Yangtze River had become endangered due to overfishing.

After the implementation of the fishing ban, the Three Gorges Reservoir has become a habitat for many endangered fish species.

The Three Gorges Reservoir is rarely visited, with a small drop and large capacity, naturally becoming a breeding ground for fish growth. At the same time, on this artificial lake, there is relatively little human damage, not only fish, but also many precious birds.

The dense islands in the lake, with birds singing and flowers fragrant, greatly enhance the biodiversity of this area, making the Three Gorges Reservoir Area a biological demonstration area in the Yangtze River region.

If all the water in the Three Gorges Reservoir area is drained, the biodiversity in this area will inevitably be destroyed. Without the regulation of water circulation, the climate in the region will also undergo significant changes.

Due to the drastic changes in climate, it may even affect people's lives in the local area, ultimately forcing them to migrate.

So, when we argue about how long it will take for the Three Gorges Reservoir to fully discharge its water, we are more focused on understanding the size of the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Hub from a lateral perspective and confirming its important position in the country and even the world.

What is your understanding of the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project?

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