While the Three Gorges Dam was under construction, it was celebrated by China's leaders as a symbol of economic and technological progress. With a capacity of 18,200 megawatts, it is the world's biggest hydropower plant and generates about 2 percent of the country's electricity. Yet since the dam project was completed in 2008, its massive social, environmental and geological impacts have become ever more apparent. At the same time, recurrent droughts have placed a question mark over the project's expected benefits.