THREE GORGES DAM

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world in terms of installed capacity (22,500 Mega Watt). It is located in the middle of the three gorges on the Yangtze River, in the Hubei Province of China.

The project was approved by the Chinese government in 1992 but construction didn't begin until 1994. It was scheduled to be completed by 2009. Except for a ship lift, the dam project was completed and fully functional as of July 4, 2012. The $25 billion project is being internationally funded by companies, export credit agencies, and banks from Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, and Brazil.

This mega-structure sets records for number of people displaced (more than 1.2 million), number of cities and towns flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), and length of reservoir (more than 600 kilometres). The dam also flooded archaeological and cultural sites