Three Gorges opens floodgates to feed thirsty Yangtze

BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) China's Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydropower project in the world, has opened its floodgates to ease water shortages not seen along the Yangtze River since the Qing Dynasty, state media said.

Officials experimented with tentative discharges in December and formally started releases yesterday.

The downstream reaches of the Yangtze have suffered the lowest water levels since records began being kept in 1877, caused by scarce rainfall and a severe drought in the upper reaches last year, Xinhua news agency said.

''Cases of boats being stranded by the shallow water have been reported frequently and difficulties in industrial, agricultural, household uses of water in the mid- and lower reaches of the Yangtze have arisen since November,'' it said.

The Three Gorges could release around 6.1 billion cubic metres of water to the lower reaches by cutting the reservoir's water level from the current 155 metres to 144 metres, Xinhua said.

China marked the completion of the dam in the central province of Hubei in May after 13 years of construction and had raised its water level by more than 20 metres to 156 metres in September and October.

But not far downstream, Yichang recorded a 2006 water flow on the Yangtze that was only 64 per cent of the average annual amount of past years, the lowest since records were available from 1877, Xinhua said.

Monitoring sites in Hankou and Datong also reported historic low water levels, it added.

Repeated heatwaves and the worst drought in more than a century hit Chongqing municipality and Sichuan province in the upper reaches for months last summer, eliminating the usual flood season on the river notorious for breaching its banks and killing thousands.

State media have quoted Chinese experts as denying the drought and the subsequent water shortages on the Yangtze have anything to do with the 25 billion dollar project.

However, many environmentalists say the 185-metre-tall dam's reservoir will become a cesspool of sewage and industrial pollutants and that the creation of such a huge artificial body of water could have unforeseen ecological effects.

Critics also decry the social impact of forcing more than 1 million people to leave their homes.

Reuters AD VP0432