The quality of water supplies in the major city of Nanjing 1,500
kilometres downstream of the dam is also threatened, as pollutants and
sediment become more concentrated in the shallower river.
Water-treatment costs in the Jiangsu provincial capital are soaring as
a result.

The People’s Daily website reported on Feb. 12 that the water level
at the Xiaguan monitoring station near Nanjing had dropped to 2.29
metres – the lowest level recorded there since 1918 and almost 0.7
metres below the February average of 2.98 metres seen in recent years.

Abnormally low precipitation has been recorded in the upper reaches
of the Yangtze in the past couple of months, and a similar shortfall
has hit the Nanjing area in recent weeks.

But Nu Hongjun, an engineer with the Nanjing Water Resources Bureau,
is also quoted as saying that the Three Gorges dam is contributing to
the downstream drought, as water is held back in its huge reservoir for
power generation.

Responding to an urgent appeal from the Yangtze Shipping
Administration Bureau, the operators of the dam have agreed to release
more water from the reservoir. The media reports say the Three Gorges
Power Corp. has promised to provide an additional flow of 300 cubic
metres per second, but they do not indicate the current rate of
discharge. This information could also not be found on official Three
Gorges project websites.

Already this month, eight boats have become stranded in the Nanjing
section of the river, including a freighter loaded with 4,000 tonnes of
cement powder, which ran aground in the main shipping channel. Other
cities farther upstream – Huangshi, Jiujiang and Anqing – have reported
a total of about two dozen stranded boats, Xinhua reported on Feb. 9.

The Yangtze shipping bureau is struggling to cope with the hazardous
conditions on the river, sending out survey teams, work crews and 17
large dredgers to try and deepen the main channel. Boats of a certain
size have also been banned from badly affected areas.

 

Leading
environmental journalist Dai Qing [pictured right], a veteran
campaigner against the Three Gorges dam, called the downstream water
shortage "a danger sign."

"The project authority has been forced to increase the amount of
water released from the reservoir this time, but what happens if it is
reluctant or even unable to do so next time?"

She wonders who will be held accountable for the losses suffered by
the shipping industry when there is too little water for navigation
downstream during the dry season – or too little water upstream during
the flood season when the reservoir level is lowered for flood-control
purposes.

"With all the competing demands on the river, from upstream and
downstream users, who should have the final say on how Yangtze water
resources are distributed and managed?" she asked. The current drought
in the middle and lower reaches also highlights the folly of Beijing’s
plan to draw water from the Yangtze and divert it to cities in the arid
north, she said.

Ms. Dai recalled a comment made in 1971 by former premier Zhou
Enlai. Reacting with alarm to problems that had emerged during
construction of another big dam, Gezhouba, 40 km downstream of Three
Gorges, he said: "The Yangtze is too important a waterway to permit
anything to go wrong. If navigation is interrupted, then the dam should
be blown up."

Critics of the Three Gorges project have long warned of the scenario
that is currently being played out on the Yangtze, as different sectors
and regions clash over access to water resources.

Writing in Damming the Three Gorges,
a critique published by Probe International in 1990 of the
Canadian-funded feasibility study undertaken for the dam, geographers
Shiu-hung Luk and Joseph Whitney said the study had not "dealt
adequately with one of the most important issues: the inherent conflict
associated with operating a multipurpose dam."

The Three Gorges reservoir would have to be operated to meet the
competing demands of power generation, flood control and navigation,
but achieving optimum results for each function would require a
different amount of water to be stored behind the dam, the authors
wrote.

Prof. Whitney, then chairman of the University of Toronto geography
department, and Prof. Luk, who taught in the department, concluded that
it was not at all clear "what the impact of operating to serve peak
electricity demands in the dry season would be on flows downstream of
the Three Gorges dam and the Gezhouba reservoir. If, for example, the
flows were too low, navigation depths would be insufficient and
navigation would be impeded through this section."