Pictured: Vast floating islands of rubbish which threaten to block the world's biggest dam

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By Mail Foreign Service

Hazard: Another floating rubbish island threatens to block the massive Three Gorges Dam in Hubei Province


It is the world's biggest dam which promised to provide environmentally friendly energy to millions.

But China's Three Gorges superstructure is now under threat from vast floating islands of rubbish and debris which have been swept into the Yangtze River by torrential rain and flooding.

The debris has clogged a large swathe of the river and the locks of the hydroelectric dam - which cost $25billion to build and claimed more than 100 lives - are now at risk.

The crust of rubbish is jammed so thick in places that people can stand on it.


Storms: Officials fear that fresh heavy rain could bring China's huge dams grinding to a halt


China has an abysmal environmental record and has had to deal with massive pollution, acid rain and contaminated rivers over the last few years.

Its booming - and in some cases highly toxic - industries have expanded quickly and at a great cost to the environment.

Three Gorges, which has a 1.4 mile long wall, only became fully operational last year and its 26 turbines have a capacity of 18,000 megawats.

Around a million people were moved and three cities flooded to create the gargantuan structure and the Chinese viewed it as a flagship environmental project.


Clogged: A worker clears floating garbage washed into the river by recent torrential rain on the Yangtze River in Wuhu, Anhui province


Race against time: Three Gorges is the world's biggest dam and took nine years to complete.


The Three Gorges rubbish jam is not an isolated occurrence. Another island covering 15,000 square metres - more than 150,000 square feet - had lodged under a bridge in the north-eastern city of Baishan in Jilin province and was blocking water flow.

Officials in Baishan are racing against time to clear the debris as they fear a fresh wave of flooding could bring down the bridge.

If the island is washed downstream, it could block floodgates at the Yunfeng dam, now operating at full capacity.

Emergency services were scrambling to clean up the waterway, near the border with North Korea, but fear it could take days.


Thankless task: A worked removes bundles of rubbish from the river at Wuhu


'We have collected 40 trucks of the trash, but the remaining trash might fill another 200 trucks,' police officer Wang Yong said.

More rain is forecast in the coming days.

In nearby Tonghua city, water supplies were restored on Wednesday, four days after flooding ripped apart pipelines.

Jilin has been devastated by floods this summer, with more than 140 people listed as dead or missing over the past two months.




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