Ethical Issues Of The Three Gorges Dam

Ethical Issues Of The Three Gorges dekametreThe role of an engineer in modern daytime conjunction to respond to the needs of the general public by applying science and modern day engineering methods to follow a certain stria of guidelines or specifications to salute the customer needs. Most importantly, that the device, plan or creation should work up to guidelines and function without fail, and reach its level of performance. Hence, the engineer must work sonorous to envision in such a way to avoid failure which could result in dam upage to peck and to the milieu, loss of property, injury or even death, thats sometimes how dangerous engineering can be if safety precautions ar taken and abided by to maintain the thoroughly universe of you and your fellow species. With e very go out taken upon by an engineer, they will learn more and more from past mistakes, every day so that they will come up with better designs which are more sparing and beneficial in the foresightful run. All engineers must accept their jobs involve a wider responsibility than simply application of their skills. Engineers must act in an honorable and morally responsible way if they are to be treated as professionals.All engineers should uphold normal standards of honesty and integrity. They should non use their skills and abilities to act in a dishonest or selfish way or in a way that will harm others. Confidentiality should also be respected by the engineer irrespective whether to a formal confidentiality agreement has been signed or not with the client. The code relates to the behaviour of the decisions made by professional engineers, it is their responsibility to guide out flaws or errors to their fellow work mates and bosses to ensure projects are finished to the top possible standard. There will be situations when plenty take away different views and objectives, so you are likely to be faced with an ethical dilemma. It is up to you as an engineer and a person to solve the problem and hear to understand the other peoples views and come out with the correct solution. Most cases will be minor ethical dilemmas and can be solved without too more than difficulty.Three Gorges DamThe three gorges dam and all the surrounding infrastructure is the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken in history, only when be wee of the ethics of the build , the project was under continuous scrutiny and controversy, due to the monumental economic, social and environmental impacts.In 2007 there was report released into the growing threats from landslides and flooding, on top of that the social and semipolitical unrest and discontent from having to move millions of people from where they were born and grew up. The project is so controversial that even some Chinese officials are beginning to be very frank on their opinions of the project.To be able to judge the significant cost and benefits on the projects cannot just stun a price tag hardly if something we nt treat it would cause never before unheard of chaos in that region and in china in general.The ProjectThe project itself stretches across the 3rd largest river in the world by 2km the Yangtze river. The name of the dam three gorges comes from the massive canyons that are formed by the towering limestone cliffs. The idea of a dam in the Chinese province of hubei in a small town called Sandouping, was first proposed 80yrs ago by Sun Yat-sen, but because of the technology wasnt there 80yrs ago nothing went forward, but then again in the 1950s by chairman Mao Tse Yung proposed that the construction of the project would be speeded up but nothing significant happened gutter 36yrs later in 1986 when the Chinese government asked a syndicate of Canadian business to finance a feasibility study.In 1992 The Chinese government approve the construction of the dam two years later the build began and subsequently 9 years hard work the first electricity was nominated. The dam itself is 200m high up with a volume of between 39-40 million cubic metres and the germ is 600km long with a capacity of 40 billion cubic metres, the dam is set to produce 10% of the electricity usage in china. In early 2008 the installation of the last generators was completed bringing the meat capacity to 14,800 MWe in 2010 when the project is set to be completed it will have the capability of producing more than 22,000 MWe eight times more than Hoover dam in Colorado.Hydro PowerHydro power is a water powered phenomena which uses the force or energy of high speed or high energy water to harness its power to generate electricity. staidness plays a big part in hydro power, as the water falls from a height it turns blades which are specially designed in the dam to run into the flow of the oncoming water which then turn a turbine to generate the power.wuhytypicalplant.gifIn the image above, we are shown a typical hydro electricity dam. The dam holds back off a large scale amount of water behind its walls, there is usually a reservoir behind the walls so that the water can be few through the gate in whatever quantity they desire. The water is then fed from the height it is at down through the intake pipe up trough to the generator to turn the turbine which turns the generators and creates the electricity and then the electricity is directly fed to peoples homes and factories for use. The water then continues on down the river as it was before after generating green energy.It is a big advantage to use hydropower rather than coal. The three gorges dam is replacing a coal fired station which would consume 50 million tonnes of coal a year which is equivalent to what is now being produced by the dam. This reduces annual carbon dioxide emissions by 150 million tonnes a year. This is a great environmental achievement.Environmental effectsThe constructions of large scale hydroelectric dams often have a detrimental effect on the environment. The Three Gorges Dam is no exception. T he three Gorges Dam areas is a very diverse region with many different animal and plant species some of whom are only open up in this part of the world. The dam and the large reservoir it created behind it have had a damaging impact on the local environment. With the creation of the dam the luck of earthquakes in the area has increased due to the extra stress the weight of water puts on the two major fault lines in the region the Jiuwanxi and the Zigui-Badong. In the seven months after September 2006, there were 822 tremors recorded after the water level was raised. So far none have been strong enough to cause any significant damage.The local wildlife has suffered greatly due to the dam including many endangered species such as the Giant Panda, Baili Dolphin (Chinese River Dolphin) and the Chinese Tiger. In total there are 47 endangered species in the Three Gorges Dam area. With the flooding of the land behind the dam the wildlife is being forced to high ground. This higher ground are being turned into small islands forcing the animals to compete for whatever little food there is on these small islands.Freshwater fish are affected most by the dam due to the fact that they cannot cross the dam therefore diminution their habitat and stop them from getting to their spawning grounds upstream. The change over of the temperature of the water and the change of the flow regime have had a damaging effect on the fish population. Also with the reduced water flow downriver seawater has started to flow up the river resulting in jellyfish coming into the river and competing for food with the indigenous fish population.The Three Gorges Dam area is home to 20% of Chinas plants, closely 6,400 different species of plants. 57% of these plants are endangering. Many of these are used in Chinese medicine.The reservoir created behind the dam is having an effect on the local climate. The reservoir is having a lake effect i.e. when already moist air picks up moisture as it cross es a warm body of water and rains it out when it gets to land. It is also reducing the temperature of the area with the increase in the cloud cover.three_gorges.jpgSocial and Economic ImpactThe three Gorges Dam project has had a severe social effect of the people of the Hubei Provence of China. The dam has flooded 13 cities, 110 towns, 1350 villages and 100,000 acres of the most fertile land in all of China in total an area of 632 km2 was flooded. The farming area lost to the reservoir produced 40% of Chinas grain and 70% of their rice. All this flooding has resulted in more than 1.2 million people having to be relocated. Many priceless archaeology and cultural symbols of China have been lost including the Ba civilisation that settled in the Three Gorges Area over 4,000 years ago.RelocationThe number of people relocated by the dam varies from 1.2 million to 5 million. Many of them were forcibly evicted from their homes They come, like devils, to knock down our homes, said villager Fu. Why are they so hard on us Most of the people displaced were moved to urban centres around Chongqing with insufficient compensation to buy or build a youthful home, or were moved into new cities built for the displaced locals in the mountains on steep sloops. The farmers that were relocated and remained farmers were not able to produce enough crops on their new land because it is not fertile enough to survive, those who moved to the cities received no training for industrial job and found it hard to get work.Many of the resettled people witness that their basic human rights have been ignored and have started to speak out against the governments handling of the relocation. Corruption and embezzling accusations are rife, with 46% of the total budget for the project being spent of re-housing and compensating the local authorities have been accused of embezzling fund and not spending enough money on housing resulting in poor slyness and unsafe construction of the new houses.Econ omic BenefitsThe economic benefits of the construction of the dam are huge. The dam will produce as much power as. The dam enables large cargo ships to travel further up the river.Hidden TruthSome recent reports concerning the dam that an increased amount of cracks was discovered in the concrete have been appearing which, is a worrying truth. The first crack was discovered in 1999 and even today there are cracks as large as from the top to the bottom which is 200m, when the waters start to rise to the max. In the largest dam in history, many towns and a lot more cultural treasures will be lost, but a much greater concerns that the dam might fail, unleashing a great mass of water for miles, possibly killing millions of people and causing billions of damage.The cracks in the dam are starting to become between 3 and 4 inches wide and 2m deep. Engineers also fear that the buildings built to relocate the millions of people affected by the project could also be at risk. The buildings wher e built on unstable ground where landslides are capable of occurring. There have also been fears of possible wellness hazards from the unrelated waste dumped into rivers every year.DiscussionThe three gorges dam is one of the worlds biggest gambles, the Chinese government have placed millions of lives on the line and millions of dollars. As well as putting endangered species at risk in their won environment, just because they thought it would save more lives from flood prevention and produce exonerated energy.Government official in charge, Wang Xiaofeng said during a meeting of Chinese scientists we simply cannot sacrifice the environment in exchange of temporary gainThe long term implications of the three gorges dam will not be understood fully until over the next few decades when engineers and scientists recognise the implications, some of which are already appearing. The sheer size and importance of the dam in china is leaving it a prime target for a military strike, which was t hreatened by the U.S. pentagon in 2004. A blow to the three gorges dam would be catastrophic, it would kill millions of people, destroy homes and towns as a mass wall of water are unleashed out of the reservoir. The Chinese military guard the dam in case of such an attack.The issues faced today are far more than was previously predicted, despite efforts by the engineers and scientists it cannot be guaranteed that landslides can be controlled or when and where they might take place.In my opinion this project was put forward, not only for economic or environmental gain, but for china to be portrayed as a force to be reckoned with and for the three gorges dam to be recognised for its greatness in modern day engineering.The three gorges dam may well be the biggest and best engineering project ever undertaken in this lifetime but it may also get the title for the biggest engineering failure in history thanks to third world work.ConclusionThe project deadline is 2010, starting in 1994, th e project has spanned over 16 years and is nearly coming to completion. As one of the largest engineering projects in world the three gorges dam undoubtedly has its cost tag, among the most substantial cost were to re locate 1.2 million Chinese natives to the lands whose houses and land were flooded to build the dam. The most important factor of the hydro dam is the reduction of the greenhouse gases as hydroelectricity is a completely green energy, also it has potentially reduced risks of floods.Over the next few decades, the projects aim will become more obvious of the work it is doing for the environment but before these benefits are delivered, the environmental, social and economic costs are beginning to show. Some officials now in china are moving towards new massive projects in water energy, which could be costly and without having learned lessons from the three gorges, while other officials question the substantial human and environmental costs of the project.Chinese official said if a decision was undertaken on undemocratic and unscientific then the laws of nature will mercifully punish us and we will counterbalance even more dearly