Posted on 04/21/2007 3:28:12 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Thousands of China's dams are 'time bombs' waiting to burst
Fri Apr 20, 4:25 AM ET
Thousands of reservoirs in China are "time bombs" waiting to burst, an official was quoted as saying Friday, a day after a dam collapse forced the evacuation of 1,700 people.
"The problematic reservoirs are like time bombs, seriously threatening the lives and property of people living downstream," said Jiao Yong, deputy minister of water resources, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
On Thursday, 1,700 people had to be evacuated from four villages after a dam in northwest China's Gansu province was breached, causing water to flood the surrounding area and destroying a highway bridge.
Jiao said all structurally unsound large, medium-sized and major small reservoirs nationwide would be repaired within three years.
The government would ensure the reinforcement and safety of the reservoirs, but it was a huge task, he said.
China has more than 85,000 reservoirs, of which 30,000 have serious structural problems, including 200 large and 1,600 medium-sized dams, Xinhua said.
China's dams and other efforts to control the country's frequently treacherous rivers have a long and tragic history.
In August 1975, a total of 62 dams in the central province of Henan either collapsed or were intentionally destroyed during a record rainstorm.
According to official statistics, at least 26,000 were killed and 10 million severely affected by the ensuing floods, which were kept secret for years. Experts have blamed faulty engineering for some of the dam failures.
Cracks in the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river have raised concerns over construction quality of the world's largest hydroelectric project, built partly to aid flood control.
The government has said the cracks pose no problem and has carried out repairs.
Ping!
From what I’ve read the U.S. also has structural problems with many of our dams also. Hopefully not nearly as many as china.
For instance the dike around Lake Okeechobee.
From what I’ve read the U.S. also has structural problems with many of our dams also. Hopefully not nearly as many as china.
For instance the dike around Lake Okeechobee.
Where's the nearest reservoir to any Olympics sites, anyway?
(Of course in the earlier day they had been "sabotaged", you understand. **rolls eyes**)
| Rank | Event | Location | Date | Death Toll (Estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1931 Yellow River flood | Yellow River, China | Summer 1931 | 1,000,000-4,000,000 |
| 2. | 1887 Yellow River flood | Yellow River, China | September-October 1887 | 900,000-2,000,000 |
| 3. | 1970 Bhola cyclone | Ganges Delta, East Pakistan | November 13, 1970 | 500,000-1,000,000 |
| 4. | 1938 Yellow River flood | Yellow River, China | 1938 | 500,000-900,000 |
| 5. | 1556 Shaanxi earthquake | Shaanxi Province, China | January 23, 1556 | 830,000 |
| 6. | 1839 India Cyclone | Coringa, India | November 25, 1839 | 300,000+ |
| 7. | 1642 Kaifeng Flood | Kaifeng, Henan Province, China | 1642 | 300,000 |
| 8. | 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami | Indian Ocean | December 26, 2004 | 280,000 |
| 9. | 1976 Tangshan earthquake | Tangshan, China | July 28, 1976 | 242,000* |
| 10. | 1138 Aleppo earthquake | Syria | 1138 | 230,000 |
It's from Wikipedia so the list needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Still, I believe the general trend is probably correct.
What’s a few hundred thousand drowned villagers to the Chinese Communist government? They are busy building the most formidable modern military on the globe, financed by US consumers.
Exactly!
But they’ll find a way to blame Bush for it.
If it got down to it, I imagine Taiwan could be of great assistance in speeding up this process.
This is just not our dam problem.
Sounds like they have the same engineering firm that worked on the Central Artery project in Boston which has been plagued with leaks, icicles, dropping ceiling panels, and trucks flying off of 10 story on-ramps constructed with undersized crash barriers.
Wow earthen dams lasting 50-60 years? Perhaps we could import this technology and apply it to the dikes in New Orleans. This way we can have a half Centurary to think about the cons of rebuilding such a worthless place.
Wait until Three Gorges lets go!
Of course, we’ll have to send aid to rebuild the “Made in China” gimcrack and gizmo factories...
Ping about the damn dam!
I strongly suspect China’s Dam quality is better than their wheat gluten.
If Bush were a Dam Engineer, they’d still blame him for it.
Bush’s fault?
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