and especially noting that the hydrologist Chen Jin had forewarned about this only for him to be ignored and politically silenced. While the lives lost were not accurately recorded. Both dams were rebuilt with Banqiao being completed in 1993and Shimantan in1996 (Cheru and Obi, 2010). While the typhoon was an element of extreme precipitation, it is a major expectation even to date in China that climate variations are always expected and often among the extreme variations in the world. Floods were also very evident in 2010 in China with effects of El Nino being the main factors behind that. This led to sedimentation and silting of the dams. This, however, was not as much as the drought that followed in the 2011. 2.1.6. Impact of the 2011 drought on hydroelectric production along the Yangtze River and on the Three Gorges Dam. In 2011, a major drought brought a power shortage in China. The Hubei Lake that harbors the greatest HEP project on earth, the Three Gorges Project (TGP) shrank to only a fifth of its depth and eighth of its normal surface area. This was equivalent with its water levels falling to 152.7 meters, which was far below the 156 meters mark necessary for the effective running of its 26 turbines. By June 2011, the levels had dropped to an alarming 145meters. The drought further complicated the case since the same water was required by farmers on lower parts of the Yangtze River on which the project is located for irrigation purposes. Thus, despite the water scarcity, still water was allowed to flow downstream to save the farmers' situation as well. The condition not only affected the TGP but also another 1392 other dams whose power production capacity and ability were completely depleted for a greater part of 2011. The depth of the river itself had plunged to 6 meters lower than it was in 2010.
This variation resulted in unexpected conditions since generally, the amounts of water enable low power production in around February with May to September being moments of high power production due to the conducive water availability. In 2011 alone, the 18.2 GW that TGP produces could not be attained, not even half of it (Makonnen, 2015). This is in huge contrast to 2010 which had 84.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity produced by the TGP alone. High temperatures and record low rainfall caused the middle and lower levels of Yangtze River to dwindle. This caused hydropower utilization to fall by a whole 55% affecting those sectors that are heavily dependent on it. The silicon manufacturing facilities, especially in Hunan, were suspended due to lack of electricity. To combat the situation, CNPCs Petro China supplied more diesel by 18.6% to the province of Hubei. While short term remedies such as increasing use of alternative sources of energy other than HEP such as thermal power is very viable in the short run, it might not be viable in the end especially noting that China is among the leading consumers of power in the world. Due to its vast potential in the production of HEP, China has seen another dam construction boom, which means that HEP is going to be a primary source of energy especially for the industrial sector by the year 2030. While the potential is high, the potential to climatic disruptions is also high. According to Harris (2010), China sits on a zone of convergence of zones making it very prone to extreme differences in weather in opposite directions, both excessive precipitation, and excessive droughts. The Wind and solar power are other viable options that might not be as affected by climatic changes as water reliant HEP. The solar energy is even more attractive with global temperatures increasing with increase in Greenhouse gasses (GHG) and the global warming that comes as a result.