THE sluice gates closed this week at the Three Gorges dam in China. The dam now barricades the Yangtze, the world’s fourth longest river, beginning the creation of a reservoir 500 kilometres long that will, notoriously, flood 2 million people from their homes. What isn’t so well known is that for China, in its drive to meet its energy and water needs, the project is just a sideshow.
This year, with rather fewer headlines, China also started work on a hydrological project that will cost three times as much as the Three Gorges dam. It will tap the Yangtze and…
