Dam renovations....

The Chinese government has admitted ( see articles here and here) that many of their dams are in a sorry state and are desperately in need of renovations. One spokesman even says the dams built during the Mao era may be 'congenitally deficient' and of poor design, caused by the 'times' and lack of objectivity when they were built.

So how many dams are in need of repair? Well, of approximately 87,000 dams in China, more than 37,000 are said to be in a risky or dangerous state. That's a lot....and of course repairing these dams will cost a lot of money and take a long time. so how much are they throwing at the problem? Well, the graphic at rightfrom China Daily sugests it will cost 51 billion Yuan (anout US $ 7 billion) to repair just over 6,000 dams. Not sure what will happen to the other dams, but a government spokesman indicates that the budget for repairing small dams will not be as large.

These dams are a major part of the flood control strategy for the Chinese government. Even with all of these control measures in place, flooding killed over 1,100 Chinese this past summer. A major dam collapse in 1975 killed over 100,000 people from the combined effects of the flood and subsequent famine and disease. China doesn't have the best record in the world with dams, and I think it will take a lot more money and effort to bring them up to a safe standard.