Floods on China's largest river, the Yangtze River, have arrived a
month earlier than normal, because of continuous rainfall over the
past month in the middle and lower reaches of the river.
On
Sunday, water levels in the Yangtze River reached 25.1 meters in
Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. Topping the
"danger level", this is the highest the river has been since
records began.
Such a dangerous height has only been recorded once before, in
1998, and one month later in June, when the disastrous flood
claimed thousands of lives and inundated 240,000 square km of
fertile farmland in this major grain production center of China.
Economic losses in the river basin during the two months of summer
flooding amounted to 200 billion yuan.
This year, Wuhan, which is the most important industrial center in
China's central region, received rainfall in April that equaled
twice the amount of rain in a normal year.
Meanwhile, provinces along the Yangtze River, such as Jiangsu and
Guangdong, have begun keeping a 24-hour watch to prevent flood
disasters, since water topped their respective "danger levels."
Water levels in the 1,548-km-long Dongting Lake along the river
have also risen higher than the "danger level. "
The Yangtze River area has been in a state of flood alert since the
beginning of this year.
Meteorologists and lawmakers attending the Fifth Session of the
Ninth National People's Congress in March called for flood
prevention measures on the Yangtze in summer.
They warned that last year's warm winter, the longest in recent
years, signaled the recurrence of El Nino, the weather pattern
usually accompanied by serious droughts and floods in China.
The last El Nino which affected China in 1997 proved this. It
brought prolonged droughts and high temperatures in north China in
1998 and catastrophic floods in the southern region.
The warning has galvanized many provinces and cities into taking
early flood precautions.
Meanwhile, after the 1998 flood, the Chinese government has
invested more than 50 billion yuan (US$6.02 billion) in building
flood controls along the Yangtze. Of that amount, 28.2 billion yuan
was used to reinforce dykes along the middle and lower reaches.
Major dykes on the Yangtze now can withstand floods of a severity
seen only once every 100 years. Ecological projects along the
Yangtze which widen its flood capacity by letting reclaimed
farmland revert to lakes and rivers, will also begin paying off
this year.
(Xinhua News
Agency May 20, 2002)