WI:Three Gorges dam destroyed

I was just wondering what would the effects be if the 3G dam was destroyed. Say perhaps there's a civil war in China and the dam gets destroyed. What would happen??
 
The problem is that a civil war in China between the dam's completion in 2008 and now is approaching ASB. If tensions within the country were that high the dam would likely never have been completed or even started.

But assuming it happens and I'm guessing you mean if the reservoir is full when it's destroyed. The lake now freed would immediately burst it's banks and spread out over all the available area. You'd have to look at a topographical map overlaid with population figures but I suspect you're looking at casualties in the the millions. It would easily be the single worst disaster in human history.

If the dam just collapses, not through civil war, the Chinese army is immediately sent in to control the situation. Lots of disaster relief (China would probably be forced to accept foreign aid), there is a serious crackdown on any political dissent and communication is tightly controlled. Investigations and executions for anyone possibly involved in the failure. Top government officials are removed and replaced. It's a huge disaster but China carries on politically.
 
Yeah the civil war scenario was just an example. I was just wondering what would happen if the dam was destroyed somehow. I've been looking at dams recently. They've been a.blind spot for me, I never realized just how much damage they could do
 
Oh boy, this is sort of my field of work. The worst dam breach in history so far was the Vaiont Dam collapse in Italy in which 4000 people died in the resulting flood wave. Now take into account that more than 75 million people live downstream of the Three Gorges Dam in an intensly cultivated floodplain that provides a LOT of food to China. The catastrophic failure of the three gorges project would be as bad as a 1000 year flood or worse.

In other words, thousands dead immediately followed by massive depletion of food supply.
 
Oh boy, this is sort of my field of work. The worst dam breach in history so far was the Vaiont Dam collapse in Italy in which 4000 people died in the resulting flood wave. Now take into account that more than 75 million people live downstream of the Three Gorges Dam in an intensly cultivated floodplain that provides a LOT of food to China. The catastrophic failure of the three gorges project would be as bad as a 1000 year flood or worse.

In other words, thousands dead immediately followed by massive depletion of food supply.

What about the complex of dam failures in 1975 along the Huai River, also in China? At least 26,000 people drowned as a direct result of the Banqiao Dam and others exceeding their capacity limits and failing. I would guess a catastrophic, sudden Three Gorges failure would kill at least that many, if not more. You could be talking about 100,000 or more people drowning, and who knows how many dying later of secondary effects.
 
What about the complex of dam failures in 1975 along the Huai River, also in China? At least 26,000 people drowned as a direct result of the Banqiao Dam and others exceeding their capacity limits and failing. I would guess a catastrophic, sudden Three Gorges failure would kill at least that many, if not more. You could be talking about 100,000 or more people drowning, and who knows how many dying later of secondary effects.

I forgot that, but I usually remember it as a result of Typhoon Nina rather than a standalone Dam failure.

But yeah the secondary effects of a TDG collapse would be catastrophic.
 

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Yeah the civil war scenario was just an example. I was just wondering what would happen if the dam was destroyed somehow. I've been looking at dams recently. They've been a.blind spot for me, I never realized just how much damage they could do

There is a dam in the DPRK thought to have been built primarily for offensive use. The RoK built a counterpart to it downstream to contain the water should the dam ever fail or be used offensively.
 
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