Layers of trash threatening to jam China's 3 Gorges Dam

Are our cleaning tasks for the culverts leading into the Stamford Canal as labourious and difficult like those for the 3 Gorges / Yangtze River as shown in this report?

Reference :-

Straits Times Online Online

Aug 2, 2010

Trash threatens to jam dam

BEIJING - LAYERS of trash floating in the Yangtze river are threatening to jam China's massive Three Gorges hydroelectric dam, state media reported on Monday.

The garbage is so thick in parts of the river that people can walk on the surface, reports said. Nearly three tonnes of refuse are collected from the dam every day, but operators are struggling with inadequate manpower and equipment as trash accumulates more quickly due to rain-triggered floods, the China Daily reported.

'The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the mitre gate (a type of lock gate) of the Three Gorges Dam,' Chen Lei, an official with the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the newspaper.

More than 150 million people live upstream from the dam. In several nearby cities, household garbage is dumped directly into the river - China's longest - because municipalities are unequipped for trash disposal.

Chen said 160,000 cubic metres of trash was collected from the dam last year.

The China Three Gorges Corporation spends about 10 million yuan (S$2 million) per year to clear floating waste, the newspaper said. In some regions, the layers of garbage are so thick that people can literally walk on the water's surface, the Hubei Daily reported. -- AFP

Nearly three tonnes of refuse are collected from the dam every day, but operators are struggling with inadequate manpower and equipment as trash accumulates more quickly due to rain-triggered floods. -- PHOTO: REUTERS