Jayi: History of the ecosystem

Yangtze River turned to "tomato juice" in Hubei, China

Amazingly, in September 2012, the Yangtze River, China'a longest river, has turned scarlet! Although the Chinese government announced that it was due to excess sand that was brought by upstreaming floods, it was doubtful that pollution was the actual cause.

The Yangtze River was different in the 20th century, before the formation of the Three Gorges Dam  in Chongqing, China. Water was relatively clearer and the river was narrower. The following pictures show how the land was different before and after the Three Gorges Dam project. Yet it is hardly to find a picture of the Yangtze river itself before the dam project, but we can get an idea how the landscape has changed due to the dam. 

Besides the change of landscapes, the water level also rised during the process of the project. These following photos were taken by Chua Chin Hon.Between June 2003 and November 2008, behind the Three Gorges Dam the water level rised from 135m to 175m.

June 2003

November 2008

This so-called "China's greatest project" was first proposed in 1919, but due to huge criticism at that time and Chinese Civil War in the 50s, it was not reintroduced until 1980s. The actual construction began in 1992 and lasted for 17 years, which completed in 2009. 

The project resettled approximately 1.3 billion people. The Chinese government promised to give compensations equivalently $7 a month, jobs and new homes, but it was hardly for the intended recipients to receive these compensations because of the local corruptions. 

Moreover, the Three Gorges project also flooded and demolished 16 towns and some of them had histories over 2,000 years. Kai Xian, one of the 16 towns, was also the last town that was completely demolished in 2008. The following video shows how the town was flooded and how people were reluctant to leave their home town. It was made by Yan Chun Su: 

Here are some other pictures of the last day of Kai Xian, photographed by Zhang Xiao and Aaron Rothman in 2008:

On the other hand, before the Three Gorges Dam project, there were severe flooding that devastated thousands of infrastructures and killed millions of people. On August 18th, 1931, a horrible flood directly or indirectly killed 3.7 million people, destroyed crops and rice, and influenced over 500 square miles of land. Famine and disease also occurred after this devastating flood. There was another terrible flood that killed 300,000 people in 1954 in China. Therefore, the Chinese government announced that the Three Gorges Dam would protect 15 million people and 1.5 million acres of farmland from the devastating flooding.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference: 
1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199800/The-river-DID-run-red-Residents-Chinese-city-left-baffled-Yangtze-turns-scarlet.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
2. http://www1.american.edu/ted/ICE/china-dam-impact.html
3. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060609-gorges-dam_2.html
4. http://places.designobserver.com/slideshow/three-gorges-dam-photographs-of-kaixian-china/33768/2328/22#slide
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWeBQ3kw5RI
6. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yangtze-river-peaks-in-china
7. http://oraclephoto.com/3gmain.html