The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest water control facility and was launched in 1993 and cost 180 billion yuan ($22.5 billion) to build.

Sitting in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the project comprises a 185-m-high dam - completed in early 2006 - 26 generators on both banks of the Yangtze River, a five-tier lock canal and a reservoir. The project is scheduled to be complete by 2009.

As a clean energy project, the world's largest hydropower plant, will help China cut the consumption of 50 million tons of coal a year.

The project will help 15 million people and 1.5 million hectares of farmland from the vagaries of flood in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze.

After the entire project is completed, it will generate 84.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

(China Daily 01/02/2008 page7)