Wuhan, China
China blew up a temporary dam along the Yangtze River this week and released the waters to the Three Gorges Dam. The latter is now holding back the river, but its other function, generating electricity, won’t be running for another two years. Three Gorges is intended to control the Yangtze’s annual floods, which have killed 300,000 in the past century. The project drew opposition from environmentalists and historic preservationists worldwide. More than 1 million people were relocated and hundreds of villages destroyed for the construction of the $25 billion dam.
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