Asia and Oceania

China’s Three Gorges hydropower plant accused of causing landslide

China’s massive Three Gorges Dam is being blamed for causing a landslide that killed at least two and injured several others in the southwestern Wushan County.
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China’s massive Three Gorges Dam is being blamed for causing a landslide that killed at least two and injured several others in the southwestern Wushan County.

The landslide included portions of the Daning River’s northern bank, according to local authorities, and created waves that caused at least 17 boats to capsize.

Plant owner China Three Gorges Corp. said the project was not affected by the landslide, though it continues to monitor the reservoir’s levels.

The massive 22,500-Three Gorges hydroelectric plant and its dam have long been accused of increasing geological pressure in an area already susceptible to seismic activity.

Critics of the project reported in 2012 that Three Gorges had caused about 19,000 “slight or ultra-slight” earthquakes since the plant’s reservoir began holding water in 2003, though others, including the Yangtze River Institute of Survey, Planning and Design, have contested that claim.

Three Gorges set a world record for annual hydroelectric power production in 2014 with 98.8 billion TWh, besting a mark previously established by Brazil’s Itaipu.