A proposed new dam in Jiangxi province has created controversy. The Jiangxi provincial government plans to build a ‘Poyang Lake water hub’, consisting of a dam on the Gan river, which is the main water source for China’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Poyang. The dam will be built in Xiajiang county, and will cover 78% of the Gan river’s flow. The dam will be used for flood prevention, combating drought, electricity generation and shipping, resembling the Three Gorges Dam in function. The dam will be the most expensive hydropower project in Jiangxi’s history.
Experts have argued that the dam will put even more pressure on the Yangtze river, reducing water levels for cities further down the river such as Wuhan and Nanjing, with some labelling the idea ‘selfish’. In the last fifty years, forty-six thousand dams have been built along the Yangtze, and now only the Poyang and Dongting lakes have a connection with the Yangtze which is uninterrupted by dams. The plans are still undergoing revision.
