Erosion and landslides
The biggest current environmental concern with the Three Gorges Dam is the erosion
and consequent landslides. Though the Chinese government has spent $1.6 billion on fortifying the earth against landslides, frequent landslides still occur and cause injuries or even death in relocate area.
Villagers have to keep immigrate can lose the farm land they live for. The phenomenon is called re-immigration which was not on the government’s previous budget. The official estimates at least 1.2 million total
relocation and more than 100 towns are ultimately to be submerged. Hence, it’s reasonable to predict a large cost for second relocation.
There are two major factors result in the serious landslides. First is because the natural geologically unstable before construction on the dam began. The second is the erosion caused by deforestation which and destabilized many hillsides. These two factors combined together revealed and reinforced old hidden ecological and environmental dangers. Besides the death caused by landslides, the most fatal consequence can happen is the partial block of the river, disturbances water transport
and the decrease of capacity of the dam. Up to now, there have been more than 1,500 landslides with a total of 36 kilometers of land caved. With the rising water level, water pressure on the shore will increase, which lead to more collapse from the mountains.