Environmentalists warned the problems that caused China's oldest hydroelectric power plant to close are also facing the Three Gorges project.
The Shilongba Hydropower Station, opened 91 years ago near Kunming in Yunnan province, was closed because water pollution became so severe that the power generators corroded as fast as they could be fitted.
The power station demanded RMB 2 million in compensation from the Yunnan authorities and urged them to put pressure on fertilizer producers upstream to treat their waste.
Water resources experts say that the Three Gorges project is facing the same problem due to high levels of untreated pollution upstream from the dam.