China has entered late summer for nearly a month, but the Sichuan-Chongqing region is still shrouded in temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, with some areas even soaring to 45 degrees Celsius. Some views suggest that the continued high temperatures are related to the Three Gorges Dam.
In early years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially stated that the Three Gorges Reservoir was a “natural air conditioner” that could regulate temperatures. However, now it is claimed that there is no relation between the dam and the high temperatures.
September in Chongqing remains scorching hot, resembling midsummer. Data shows that the Shapingba district in Chongqing had as many high-temperature days in August as Turpan in Xinjiang, reaching up to 29 days. On September 2, Chongqing experienced a long-awaited thunderstorm, with 20 districts recording gusts above level 8. That night, the thunderstorm lowered Chongqing’s nighttime temperature to below 30 degrees Celsius, but the cooling effect did not last until morning.
On September 3, Chongqing’s daytime high temperature once again surpassed 40 degrees Celsius. From August 21 to September 4, Chongqing has issued high-temperature red alerts for 15 consecutive days. The meteorological department predicts that the number of days with temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius or higher in Chongqing this year may exceed 2011 and 2006, ranking among the top two in history.
On social media, photos were shared of slippers shrinking under the intense sun and a noodle shop owner attempting to fry eggs using a frying pan under the sun. Meanwhile, outdoor screens in shopping malls displayed “Chongqing, mildly warm at 42°C” in a playful reference to the high temperatures.
The prolonged high temperatures have led to a delay in the start of the school year. Several districts in Chongqing have issued notices postponing the start of the autumn semester for primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, and vocational schools until September 9. With the push for summer retreat, flights from Chongqing to Beijing were fully booked, and some flights to seaside cities like Qingdao, Beihai, and Dalian were also sold out. On August 30, the one-way ticket price from Chongqing to Hohhot soared from over 300 yuan to 1,600 yuan in less than 3 hours.
Why do the high temperatures persist? The chief forecaster of the China Meteorological Administration analyzed that the high-temperature area is mainly controlled by the subtropical high-pressure system. Areas under the subtropical high-pressure system usually have clear weather, which promotes continuous heating from solar radiation. The Sichuan-Chongqing region, located in the Sichuan Basin, is limited in horizontal heat exchange due to its terrain. The surrounding mountains hinder the dispersion of hot air, leading to the accumulation of heat and exacerbating the high-temperature weather.
There are voices on the internet attributing the prolonged high temperatures in the Sichuan-Chongqing region to the Three Gorges Dam. Some self-media outlets cited a 2002 report from the Chongqing Evening News claiming that after the Three Gorges Reservoir was filled with water, the world’s largest artificial lake would become a vast “natural air conditioner.” They questioned whether this “air conditioner” had forgotten to be serviced.
In June 2002, the Chongqing Evening News quoted an expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences as saying that after the Three Gorges Reservoir was filled, the world’s largest artificial lake would become a great “air conditioner” that would ensure mild winters and cool summers for Chongqing. The report stated that this conclusion was one of the results of a five-year monitoring and research project by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the formation of the Three Gorges Reservoir. However, the expert later denied this statement.
In November 2002, the official CCP media Xinhua News Agency published an article stating that Li Yong’an, Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager of the Three Gorges Development Corporation, told Xinhua Net that the conclusion that the Three Gorges Reservoir would become the world’s largest natural “air conditioner” was the result of a five-year monitoring and research project by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the formation of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Li Yong’an also mentioned that this project was a key research project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and had passed the review.
Xinhua Net also mentioned that after the formation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, it would act as a huge “natural air conditioner,” lowering temperatures in Chongqing in summer and raising them in winter. The article estimated that temperatures in summer could decrease by 4-5 degrees Celsius and increase by 3-4 degrees Celsius in winter.
However, after experiencing prolonged high temperatures in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, a recent article published by the “Chinese Science Bulletin” under the supervision of the Chinese Academy of Sciences stated that this issue should not be blamed on the Three Gorges Dam.
The article quoted Li Yunliang, a researcher at the Institute of Geography and Limnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deputy director of the Poyang Lake Wetland Observation Research Station, who stated that the Three Gorges Reservoir could indeed have a certain “air conditioning” effect on the surrounding environment. However, this effect is relatively limited in regulating temperatures, usually only lowering the average summer temperature by 1 to 1.3 degrees Celsius and reducing the highest temperature by about 2 degrees Celsius, with the impact mainly confined to 2 to 10 kilometers around the reservoir.
Li Yunliang also emphasized that due to the actual distance between the Three Gorges Reservoir and the city center of Chongqing, the direct impact of the reservoir on the central urban area is limited.
Zhang Junfeng, who has long been concerned about environmental issues in China, was a senior engineer in the CCP Ministry of Communications and is now a civilian water expert and environmental volunteer. In an interview with Epoch Times on September 6, Zhang Junfeng said that as early as a 2002 academic seminar, he discussed with experts whether the Three Gorges reservoir area could trigger climate change in the upstream region, but his views were strongly opposed by some experts in the CCP’s water management department.
Zhang Junfeng mentioned that he had suggested at the time that changes in the lower-level topography of the Three Gorges reservoir area might affect the climate channel westward from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He said, “This is similar to an amplification effect, which may cause corresponding meteorological changes in downstream Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and upstream Chongqing regions.” However, he stated that some experts in the CCP’s water management department did not agree with his views. They believed that such a small topographical change in the Three Gorges reservoir area was not significant enough to have a noticeable impact on climate.
“However, looking at the climate changes after 2002, the impact is not negligible, but rather significant,” Zhang Junfeng said. “From the perspective of precipitation and high temperatures, severe extreme weather phenomena have occurred almost every year in both Jiangsu-Zhejiang regions and the Sichuan Basin. I believe that this extreme weather is not only the result of global climate change but also directly related to the climate changes brought about by the reconstruction of the Three Gorges reservoir area.”
In 1992, the CCP National People’s Congress passed the Three Gorges Project proposal, and construction officially began on December 14, 1994. In 2003, the first unit was connected to the grid for power generation; in 2006, the Three Gorges Dam was completed; and in 2009, the entire project was declared completed. However, as the world’s largest water conservancy hub, the Three Gorges Project has been accompanied by external doubts throughout, with the quality of the project being a focus of concern.
The construction of the Three Gorges Dam began under the late CCP former leader Jiang Zemin, who was considered a key decision-maker of the Three Gorges Project. In his memoirs, former CCP Premier Li Peng wrote that after Jiang Zemin became CCP General Secretary, the first place he inspected outside Beijing was the site of the Three Gorges Dam. After 1989, all major decisions related to the Three Gorges Project were made under the presidency of Jiang Zemin.
Since the start of the Three Gorges Project, there have been frequent reports of quality issues. Between 2001 and 2002, when the Three Gorges Dam was not yet completed, cracks appeared, with 40 cracks found on the upstream side of the dam and 38 on the downstream side. Before the Three Gorges Reservoir was filled with water in 2003, the State Council’s acceptance committee for the Three Gorges Project found more than 80 cracks on the surface of the dam. Between 2008 and 2012, there were a total of 401 new geological disaster risks in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.
The Three Gorges Project cost over $22 billion, with approximately 1.3 million people relocated. At the celebration of the complete construction of the Three Gorges Project in 2009, not a single CCP leader attended, which was very rare.
After the Three Gorges Reservoir officially filled with water on June 1, 2003, the reservoir area and downstream regions encountered disasters one after another. Extreme climates such as droughts, high temperatures, and floods frequently occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In early 2008, severe snow disasters struck the southern regions, with Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Sichuan provinces being the most severely affected. In the same year, Sichuan was hit by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Wenchuan, and in 2013, Ya’an in Sichuan experienced a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. However, the CCP has consistently emphasized: “It has nothing to do with the Three Gorges Project.”
At the inception of the proposed construction of the Three Gorges Dam, Huang Wanli, a Chinese water resources expert and professor at Tsinghua University’s Water Resources Department, sent three letters to Jiang Zemin expressing clear opposition to the Three Gorges Project.
Huang Wanli detailed the potential hazards of the Three Gorges Project from various aspects such as geology, environment, ecology, and military. He warned about the potential for gravel accumulation in Chongqing after the Three Gorges Reservoir was filled with water, exacerbating flooding in Sichuan, the enormous project costs, and the long-term hazards of resettling migrants. He boldly predicted that if the Three Gorges High Dam were to be built, it would inevitably have to be demolished in the future.