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China is Flooding? — The Debt and Shortages Caused by 94,000 Dams
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China Floods 2021
The dam at a small reservoir in China's Guangxi region gave way last month after days of heavy rain in a collapse that could be a harbinger of sterner tests for many of the country's 94,000 ageing dams as the weather gets more extreme.
Located in Yangshuo county, famed for its otherworldly karst landscape, the dam collapsed at around midday on June 7, inundating roads, orchards and fields in Shazixi village says residents.
Completed in 1965, the dam, made of compacted earth, was designed to hold 195,000 cubic metres of water, enough to fill 78 Olympic-size swimming pools and meet Shazixi's farmers' irrigation needs.
On a visit to the reservoir in mid-July, Reuters found the length of the dam, of about 100 metres, had largely vanished. It was reinforced 25 years ago.
The water went over the dam, which then collapsed, said a survey crew member at the reservoir, declining to be identified as he was not authorized to.
The 94,000 dams in China
Shazixi, a remote village, is among many Chinese towns on the country's multi-billion-dollar hydro-engineering projects…
