The programme explores the impact of the Three Gorges Dam project from the point of view of:

• A family living downstream who lost everything they owned in this year’s floods.
• Some villagers and an urban shopkeeper living upstream who are facing the expense and uncertainty of being resettled.
• A construction manager, caught up in the excitement and energy generated by the project.
• Some of his employees.

00.00 — 1.08

Heavy rainfall and flooding in 1998 in central China. The Yangtze river rose and broke its banks. Fields and villages were flooded. Houses, farms and factories were swept away. Thousands of people died. Hundreds of thousands of people were mobilised to strengthen earth dykes to protect industrial cities.

1.08 — 1.30

Plans to build the Three Gorges Dam to hold back the Yangtze. It will be the biggest wall of concrete in the world.

1.30 — 2.05

Map showing the course of the Yangtze from its source in Tibet to its mouth at Shanghai, and showing Three Gorges region. How summer rains can swell the river. Gongan county, where disastrous floods occurred in 1998.

2.05 — 2.15

The Yangtze bursting its banks in Gongan county, destroying homes.

2.15 — 2.35

A family rebuild their home using reclaimed bricks from their old house. They have lost everything else. Food remains scarce.

2.35 — 2.55

A flood survivor explains the effect of the flood on his family and his village. The family pump water from a stand-pipe.

2.55 — 3.35

A child explains how frightening the flood was. Families live in makeshift houses with rudimentary facilities. They were supposed to move to a new house in the village, but prefer to stay near their fields and to try to return to a normal life.

3.35 — 3.46

Children walk to school along a dyke. Every rainy season threatens the land.

3.46 — 4.26

A family dig out a thick layer of clay sediment which has ruined their fields. This area had not been flooded in living memory, but is now ruined. The backbreaking work of farmers digging to rescue their fields from the silt.

4.26 — 4.50

Not only farmland was affected by the floods: a village cotton mill was one of 28 factories also flooded. Only one in ten of the original workers now has a job here.

4.50 — 4.57

In Gongan county the floods cost over £500 million.

4.57 — 5.30

The bridge over the Yangtze in the city of Wuhan. The costs would have been enormous if Wuhan had been flooded. Wuhan is a modern industrial city of 5 million people. It prospers because of its position on the river, but flooding is an ever-present danger.

5.30 — 5.50

Construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which is being built to help protect cities like Wuhan. Blasting through the rock face. The dam will cost £15 billion and should be completed by 2009.

5.50 — 6.35

The completed dam will be 2km long and 185m high. Sluices will regulate the flow of water. The dam will hold back water to a depth of 130m.

6.35 — 7.00

At the construction site are shafts for turbines for generating hydroelectric power. The project will create a huge number of jobs (20,000 on the dam construction site alone).

7.00 — 7.10

Workers on the site.

7.10 — 7.45

A migrant worker who has travelled from his home in Hunan province to work on the dam. His whole family are now here. His wife also works on the dam. He welcomes the dam as a job opportunity, but even this work will not last for ever, and when it is over he must return to his home region. It is hoped that the dam project will stimulate other jobs.

7.45 — 8.00

Construction of the dam and of ship locks.

8.00 — 8.30

How ship locks will work. They will cope with vessels of up to 10,000 tons. A massive lake will be formed behind the dam.

8.30 — 9.09

The landscape of the Three Gorges will be changed for ever.

9.09 — 9.20

River traffic on the Yangtze. Ships will be able to travel from the site of the dam as far as the city of Chongqing. This will bring much-needed development to the interior. Many towns will be submerged.

9.20 — 9.30

Street scenes of a city that will be flooded.

9.30 — 10.45

Plans for the evacuation of towns and cities that will be submerged by the lake. The owner of a tea shop that will be submerged explains what will happen to his business. The City of Ghosts, a temple which is a meeting place for locals and a tourist attraction, will be flooded, along with hundreds of other historic sites.

10.45 — 11.00

All land under 175m high will be flooded. Signs along the Gorges show people where the water level will be.

11.00 — 11.20

The effects of flooding on the town of Fengje. New houses have been built above the waterline. A factory will be flooded.

11.20 — 11.31

A map showing the dam and the city of Chongqing, and the area between them which will be submerged.

11.31 — 12.00

The city of Fengdu. The Deputy Governor explains the effect of the dam on the city. A model shows what the new city of Fengdu will be like: a chance to leave all problems behind.

12.00 — 12.35

Scenes of new city under construction, which will take years to build. People working on new apartment blocks. Difficult to keep to building standards under this pressure. People will be paying for their new homes for decades to come.

12.35 — 13.30

Fields and farms along the Gorges will also be flooded. Scenes of terraced fields and houses. Interview with Mrs Wang — explains the effect of the dam on her family and on the farm she will have to leave.

13.30 — 13.50

New houses built above the old village, at a cost two or three times greater than the compensation the villagers will get from the government. Scenes of family in new house.

13.50 — 14.20

Working on the resettlement site is one way of earning extra cash, but it is not a sustainable income. Land is cleared to level the hillside for house building.

14.20 — 14.30

New terraced fields are constructed to replace the old: in this area there is only enough for one in three villagers.

14.30 — 15.20

Mr and Mrs Han explain that the land ration is now one-seventh of a hectare instead of the previous ration of one-third of a hectare. The soil is poor. They are no longer able to live off their own produce, and need to find other work to pay for food. Terraced fields are ploughed, supporting walls built.

15.20 — 15.35

The environmental impact of the dam.

15.35 — 16.15

The existing dam, built 25 years ago, has already begun to silt up. Fish catches have fallen, and the lake traps pollution. There are fears that the Three Gorges Dam, seven times bigger, might suffer similar problems and even more major ones.

16.15 — 17.00

The limestone cliffs along the Yangtze. The fact that limestone is water-soluble may give rise to problems: a rapidly eroding landscape, and earth movements cracking the dam if the cliff walls crumble under the waters of the lake.

17.00 — 18.05

Past efforts to control the Yangtze floods. Li Peng laying the foundation stone of the Three Gorges Dam in 1994. Government credibility and huge amounts of money are at stake.

18.05 — 18.30

Fields in Gongan county, which will be safer once the dam is completed. Villagers reinforcing earth dykes: a task that will still be necessary even after the dam is built.

18.30 — end

Work on the dam continues: it has gone too far to stop now.