YICHANG, China -
The Three Gorges Dam project has played a
significant role in improving navigation
conditions and increasing shipping capacity in
China's Yangtze River.
Cargo
transportation via the Three Gorges Dam increased
to 44 million tons last year from 14.75 million
tons in 2003, when the Three Gorges reservoir
began storing water, said Cao Guangjing, deputy
general manager of the Yangtze River Three Gorges
Project Development Corp.
Yi Mengxiong,
captain of a ship on the Yangtze, said the
increase in shipping capacity was something that
he had never dreamed of. Yi, in his early 50s,
said his company, which only had several small
boats in the past, now owns 22 large and
medium-sized
ships, including three
roll-on-roll-off ships worth 10 million yuan
(US$1.25 million) each.
"Navigation on the
Yangtze is easier [now since] the navigation
course is wider and deeper thanks to water storage
in the Three Gorges reservoir," Yi said.
Yi, captain of the "Qiaotai-17", is busy
shuttling between the ports of Chongqing and Hubei province on the
upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze.
"We expanded our fleet because of the
improved navigation [conditions] on the Yangtze,"
said He Changjiang, deputy general manager of the
Chongqing-based Qiaotai Shipping Co, where Yi
works.
The navigation course was only 2.9
meters deep at the shallowest parts of the Three
Gorges section of the Yangtze until the Three
Gorges reservoir began storing water in 2003,
restricting the passage of ships with high
deadweight tonnage.
Currently, the
navigation course on the Yangtze River provides
access to vessels of 3,000 deadweight tonnes or
less, said Feng Zhengpeng, an official with the
Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development
Corp.
When the water level of the Three
Gorges reservoir reaches 156 meters, the width of
the navigation course will expand to more than 150
meters, with the depth exceeding 3.5 meters. This
will allow the non-stop passage of 10,000dwt
vessels from Shanghai, at the estuary
of the Yangtze, to Chongqing, on the upper reaches
of the river, Feng said.
With improving
navigation conditions, ships will sail on the
Yangtze more safely and their speed can increase
by about 20%, Feng said, adding that navigation
costs will be be cut by 30% per ton-kilometer.
The seven provinces and two municipalities
along the Yangtze make up 41% of China's total
economy and the shipping capacity on the Yangtze
accounts for 80% of the total shipping capacity of
China's inland rivers, according to statistics
from the Ministry of Communications.
The
shipping capacity on the main tributary of the
Yangtze reached 795 million tons last year, and
the handling capacity of ports along the river
reached 650 million tons. The total throughput
included 78 million tons of cargo in foreign trade
and 2.6 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of
containers, according to the Yangtze River
Navigation Affairs Administration. The throughput
on the main tributary was only 400 million tons as
recently as 2000.
The Three Gorges project
was launched in 1993, and was scheduled to be
completed by 2009. The project, which includes a
2,309-meter-long, 185-meter-high dam with 26 power
generators, is expected to generate 84.7 billion
kilowatt-hours of electricity annually when it is
completed. It is also expected to control flooding
on the Yangtze, fuel industrial growth in the
area, and improve shipping.
On Tuesday,
the 580-meter-long and 140-meter-high cofferdam
protecting the just-completed main wall of the
Three Gorges Dam was demolished by a blast of 191
tonnes of explosives, enough to topple 400
10-story buildings. The operation took about 12
seconds, causing nearly 190,000 cubic meters of
concrete fragments from the upper-30-meter section
of the cofferdam to tumble into the river.
Data from monitoring equipment showed
that, as planned, the dam and power plant of the
massive Three Gorges Project were undamaged by
Tuesday's massive explosion.
"Although the
waves caused by explosion were a little stronger
than predicted, the dam and the power plant were
unharmed," said Wu Xinxia, a Yangtze River Academy
of Sciences official and head of the demolition
operation. The power plant now operating in the
dam's northern section remained undamaged by the
explosion, confirmed Ma Zhenbo, head of the Three
Gorges Power Plant.
Prior to the
explosion, special devices were used to scare fish
away, and this move also proved successful as no
dead fish were found, said Cao.
Construction of the mammoth Three Gorges
project started in 1994, and its major structure,
the 185-meter-high main dam, was completed on May
20. After the dismantling of the cofferdam, the
Three Gorges Dam is now playing its intended role
in flood control on the Yangtze River.
