China's highest governing body, the State Council, has approved a
program to tackle Yellow River problems in the near future.
According to the State Council, localities along the river valley
and central government departments concerned should make concerted
efforts to basically establish a flood prevention and silt
reduction system in 10 years.
Flood control and silt reduction on the lower reaches of the Yellow
River should be the focus in the near future.
Other major objectives of the 10-year program include improving the
unified management and allocation of water resources, bringing the
overall discharge of pollutants under control, strengthening water
and soil conservation, and basically keeping the ecological
environment along the valley from worsening.
Due to worsening siltation, the Yellow River has become an "aerial"
river in some places where its banks tower above nearby towns. This
has caused many major mishaps in the past.
Earlier this month, Chinese scientists and engineers carried out an
experiment to flush Yellow River silt down to the sea using
artificial flood waves.
The 5,464-km-long (3,395 miles) Yellow River, the second largest in
China, runs through 11 province-level administrative zones before
emptying into the Bohai Sea in Shandong Province, east China.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 30, 2002)