New China floods feared as Yangtze swells
CHONGQING, China (AFP) - – China, already reeling from deadly floods, braced Friday for a potential new deluge on the Yangtze downstream from the huge Three Gorges Dam as its reservoir's level hit a high for the year.
The warnings came as officials sought to dampen expectations that the dam could completely tame the swelling river amid the worst flooding in a decade, which has left more than 1,000 people dead or missing.
The Three Gorges reservoir's water level reached its highest point in this year's floods, the water resources ministry said, adding it hit the dam's 158.8-metre mark Friday. State press reports put its maximum at 175 metres.
Huge amounts of water continued to thunder out of its massive spill-gates and the government of Jiangxi said the hard-hit eastern province downstream was at a "critical juncture" in flood control.
It ordered authorities to redouble flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains.
" Over the next 20 to 30 days, the high water level of the Yangtze River's Jiujiang section and Poyang Lake will continue. The flood situation is very grim," the provincial government said in a statement.
Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and linked to the Yangtze, is one of hundreds of major Chinese lakes and rivers whose water levels have exceeded their danger marks. Jiujiang is a city of about five million people.
Authorities elsewhere in the region issued similar warnings.
Vice Water Resources Minister Liu Ning this week called the Three Gorges Dam -- the world's largest hydroelectric project -- a "pillar" against new floods, but other officials began to emphasise its limits.
"The Three Gorges Dam is not a panacea," Wei Shanzhong, deputy director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, was quoted Friday by state media as saying.
He said authorities face a delicate task in coming weeks in emptying the rising reservoir as fast as possible without triggering
The warnings came as officials sought to dampen expectations that the dam could completely tame the swelling river amid the worst flooding in a decade, which has left more than 1,000 people dead or missing.
The Three Gorges reservoir's water level reached its highest point in this year's floods, the water resources ministry said, adding it hit the dam's 158.8-metre mark Friday. State press reports put its maximum at 175 metres.
Huge amounts of water continued to thunder out of its massive spill-gates and the government of Jiangxi said the hard-hit eastern province downstream was at a "critical juncture" in flood control.
It ordered authorities to redouble flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains.
" Over the next 20 to 30 days, the high water level of the Yangtze River's Jiujiang section and Poyang Lake will continue. The flood situation is very grim," the provincial government said in a statement.
Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and linked to the Yangtze, is one of hundreds of major Chinese lakes and rivers whose water levels have exceeded their danger marks. Jiujiang is a city of about five million people.
Authorities elsewhere in the region issued similar warnings.
Vice Water Resources Minister Liu Ning this week called the Three Gorges Dam -- the world's largest hydroelectric project -- a "pillar" against new floods, but other officials began to emphasise its limits.
"The Three Gorges Dam is not a panacea," Wei Shanzhong, deputy director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, was quoted Friday by state media as saying.
He said authorities face a delicate task in coming weeks in emptying the rising reservoir as fast as possible without triggering
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