Authorities responsible for areas along major flood-prone rivers,
particularly the rain-swollen Yangtze, have been urged to prepare
for the year's worst floods as China enters its major rainy season
this month.
Deng Jian, deputy director of the Office of the State Flood-Control
and Drought-Relief Headquarters, told China Daily: "It is high time
for water levels in the Yangtze and other major rivers to rise as
more rain is predicted for this month, the beginning of the major
flood season throughout China."
China's big rivers - including the Yangtze, Huaihe and Yellow -
will face rising water levels, which might lead to flooding with
more rains in the next few weeks, Deng said.
In
Central and East China, major floods are likely to occur along the
middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, one of China's key
flood-prone areas.
But Deng refused to predict how strong the floods might be. He
said: "It will depend on the intensity of rain falling on the river
and the consequent run-off formed in the weeks ahead."
The season's rain belt is moving quickly. "The belt was in the
Huaihe River valley only a few days ago and is now in the skies
over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River," said
Deng.
By
yesterday, rainfall had pushed up water levels to above the warning
levels at Chenglingji and Hukou, outlets of the Dongting and Poyang
lakes leading to the Yangtze.
Although torrential rain has caused many local creeks and rivers to
overflow since early June, the rain - much of which fell in
drought-prone regions - has not increased the run-off on the main
parts of China's major rivers.
Deng said this is why China's major rivers have remained "basically
stable" without flooding so far this week except for the Huaihe and
Pearl rivers.
Flash-flood waters have receded and passed downstream without
causing heavy damage in the Huaihe, China's third-longest river,
and in the Xijiang, a tributary of the Pearl River in South
China.
To
date, water levels are below their alarm levels on most of the main
sections of the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe, Songhua, Liaohe and Haihe
rivers.
But more than 500 people have been killed in flooding since the
start of June. The floods have also caused 26 billion yuan (US$3.1
billion) in damage in 18 provinces.
Deng admitted: "China has suffered heavy damage from the flooding
on some local rivers due to torrential rain."
He
said the most significant factor in the heavy flooding was that
storms took the rainfall to more than 600 millimetres in a few
areas.
The rain that fell between June 7 and 11 covered two-thirds of
China's territory and triggered the worst floods ever recorded in
many local rivers' history, including the Ziwu and Xunhe in
Northwest China's Shaanxi
Province and the Jinxi River in Fujian Province.
The worst-hit province was Shaanxi, where 151 people were killed
and 300 others missing. Heavy rainfall caused torrents of water,
mud and rock to tumble from the mountains in remote areas such as
Foping, the hardest-hit county in the province.
Such flooding is usually particularly destructive in
drought-plagued areas such as Foping. People had got used to
farming in dry river beds for years and were unaware of the risk of
flooding, experts said.
China still faces major difficulties in its fight against
devastating floods despite its massive reinforcement of levees on
major flood-prone rivers since 1998. The reinforcement aimed to
increase flood-control capacity and mitigate possible damage.
Some experts have expressed concern that sections of embankment
have still not been reinforced, as well as worries over the
operation of some flood basins and the dependability and security
of the new facilities.
But another expert at the flood-control headquarters, who declined
to be named, predicted: Emergencies will not occur everywhere this
year even if there is flooding like that in 1998 thanks to the
large-scale reinforcement along thousands of kilometres of levees
on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Following the consolidation of more than 3,000 kilometres of levees
along the Yangtze, "major anti-flood facilities along the river are
capable of withstanding flooding like that in 1954, one of the
river's worst in history," the expert said.
However, the expert made it clear that this does not mean that
flood control along the Yangtze, Yellow and other major rivers "has
been completed once and forever."
Many things remain to be done to perfect anti-flood systems on the
rivers, the expert said.
Many new water-control projects have to be tested by floods to
prove they can withstand flash flooding during the rainy season,
the expert said.
(China
Daily July 3, 2002)