Three Gorges Dam of the river downstream, and provides fresh water for agricultural and industrial usage. It also improves shipping conditions. The water level upstream drops from 175 m to 145 m, preparing for the rainy season. The water also powers the Gezhouba Dam downstream. Since the filling of the reservoir in 2003, the Three Gorges Dam has supplied an extra 11 cubic kilometres of fresh water to downstream cities and farms during the dry season. During the 2010 South China floods in July, inflows at the Three Gorges Dam reached a peak of , exceeding the peak during the 1998 Yangtze River
Three Gorges Dam The project used of concrete (mainly for the dam wall), used 463,000 T of steel (enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers), and moved about of earth. The concrete dam wall is high above the rock basis. When the water level is at its maximum of above sea level, higher than the river level downstream, the dam reservoir is on average about in length and in width. It contains of water and has a total surface area of . On completion, the reservoir flooded a total area of of land, compared to the of reservoir created by the Itaipu Dam. The