2005 is the second year when the Three Gorges Project entered Phase III Construction period in an all round way. The progress of the project meets overall requirements with steady improvement of project quality. The key structures operate safely with power generation exceeding the production target. The ship lock has smooth operation with orderly shipment.

The river basin of the Three Gorges enjoyed rapid social and economic development in 2005. The total production output of the project area increased by 11.8% in comparable price compared with that of 2004 and the industrial structure being under further improvement. Each economic sector of the project area enjoyed steady fast growth with continuous rising of living standard. In addition, the basic situation of public health was normal.

In 2005, the overall situation of natural ecological environment was basically the same as that of 2004. The climate was a little bit warmer with average precipitation. During the wet season, there was not any large scale and severe flood disasters. The amount of the fish fry of the "four local fishes" in the river flow continuously decline. However, the resource of parent crabs and colia mystus went up by different degree but eel fries. The overall water quality of major fishery waters was good, basically meeting the growth and reproduction requirements of fishes. Due to the increasing pressure on ecological environment of farmland, the arable land area and the total sown area were on continuous reduction with some increase of crop proportion. The earthquake intensity kept at relatively low level, same as normal year.

In 2005, a total of 574 million tons of industrial effluent was discharged into the Three Gorges area with major pollutants of COD being 77,100 tons and NH₃-N being 5800 tons. The total urban sewage was 409 million tons, the release of COD was 92,600 tons and NH₃-N 9400 tons. A total amount of 496,900 tons of oil containing wastewater from ships and boats were discharged into the waters, down by 6.2% compared with that of last year, 94.9 percent of such oil-containing water had been treated. The amount of domestic sewage from ships and boats reached 2.068 million tons, up by 9.0% compared with that of 2004.

In 2005, water quality of the Three Gorges project areas was dominated by Grade III standard with relatively poor quality in tributary rivers. There were quite a number of water bloom phenomena in return water areas mainly concentrated on March ~ July. As a whole, the environmental quality of the construction area and resettlement area was quite good.