During his recent inspection tour of flood prevention work on the
Yellow River in mid-July, Premier Zhu Rongji urged local provincial
leaders along the river to keep on high alert against floods and
guarantee a safe flood season.
"The Yellow River has a great bearing on the country and the
responsibility of flood prevention here is as heavy as Mount Tai,"
said Zhu.
Acknowledging that the Yellow River flood prevention work has
entered a critical stage, Premier Zhu urged local Party and
government leaders of Gansu
and
Shaanxi provinces in northwest China to further implement their
responsibility system and get everything ready to deal with any
possible floods, so as to guarantee the safety of dams and
embankments in their areas as well as the safety of local people's
lives and property.
The five-day tour, made between July 15 and 19, took Premier Zhu
from Lanzhou, provincial capital of Gansu and a major city in the
upper reaches of the Yellow River, to Yan'an city in the northern
part of Shaanxi province and several other major cities downstream
in central Henan province and east China's Shandong province and
finally to Dongying city in Shandong, where China's second longest
river joins the Bohai Bay.
On
the afternoon of July 17, Premier Zhu presided over a working
meeting in Zhengzhou, capital city of central China's Henan
Province, on flood prevention work at the middle and lower reaches
of the Yellow River. The meeting was attended by provincial leaders
of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong.
Summing up the flood prevention and control work along the Yellow
River, he said that all-out efforts should made to firmly grasp
"three major links", namely, to step up water conservation and soil
erosion control work, to further reinforce the construction of
flood-control projects, and to rationally utilize and strictly
protect the river's water resources.
Wen Jiabao, vice-premier and also head of the State Flood Control
and Drought Relief Headquarters, accompanied Premier Zhu during the
entire tour and at the meeting.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 22, 2002)