It was an ecological travesty from the very beginning. We can also go into specific engineering details, too.
(I took several quantum mechanics , and mechanical engineering courses, lol).
We have a saying in italy: Water is full of beauty...until it rises its voice"
Both Japan and Italy share a sea faring tradition. And i think we both know that there is not much on this planet that has as much power as water. The 3 Gorges Dam enchained the Yangtze river. One of the most powerful rivers in they world. They created a monster. The river want break free and it will break free over short or long.
Too see what happenes, just look at egypt. The nile is also a powerful river, enchained from the aswan dam. The effects are a desaster. This is a war between nature and humans and the river nile fights on all fronts to get free. And the Nile is winning.
The nile delivers billions of tons of mud into the lake. In a few years the entire lake bed will be filled with mud and the nile will break its way through the dam.
The enormous weight of the water in the lake creates countless earthquakes. The sinking water level on the far away areas lead to desertification and salination. farm land gets unuseable. The fertile mud is not delivered anymore to the fields so the farmers must buy expensive fertilizer. And the worst aspect, because the nile does not carry sediments anymore, the nile delta gets eroded from the mediterranean sea. Egypt loses its most fertile land.
The situation is so bad, that politicians talk about to free the nile and deconstruct the dam. That would be a gigantic task.
When i visited egypt one of our guides told me that it is like you captured a dangerous animal. Like a tiger. You know one day it will be free and it will kill you.
Same starts in China already.
In europe we deregulate our rivers and lakes. The goal is to give them their freedom back.
The chinese military is aware of the dangers of this dam.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Storm across the Taiwan Strait
The 3 gorges dam is a military target for evry one of chinas rivals. Even USA suggests it as a prime target.
Thats what i said. China created a gigantic problem for itself.