Explosives will be triggered today in the Kenli section of the Yellow River in Dongying, East China's Shandong Province, as authorities prepare to combat possible floods caused by accumulated ice.

The ice can form natural dams that may cause the water level to rise high enough to swamp the embankments that protect people along the river.

According to the Shandong Yellow River Flood-Control Office, by 8 am Tuesday low temperatures had iced up a total of 319.5 kilometers of 95 sections of the Yellow River in Shandong. Thus far the ice has caused no trouble.

The ice-bound area covers more than half the total Shandong section of the Yellow River. Local weather broadcasts say that the temperature in most areas of Shandong will gradually move higher in the coming week. However, the build-up of ice is predicted to last until the end of February.

"We are observing the ice flow on high alert. Water discharge is undertaken per our critical calculations and discussions, so we can ensure the proper flow of water," said Hao Chuanbin, an official from the Shandong Yellow River Flood-Control Office.

Meanwhile, the office has been carefully monitoring the water-diversion project that sends water from the Liaocheng section of the river in Shandong to Tianjin, north of Shandong.

"Water might ice up while going north to colder Tianjin. Once ice stops the flow, the water level will rise.

Ice dams will threaten to overrun the embankments that protect millions of local residents and might lead to flooding," the official said.

"Everything is under control now. We are taking precautions to prevent ice from piling up and blocking the flow," he said.

Shandong is not the only place where a substantial length of the Yellow River has frozen.

Nearly two-thirds of the section of the Yellow River in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has frozen, four times what froze last year.

According to the Ningxia Yellow River Flood-Control Office, ice had covered 215 kilometers of the 397-kilometer Yellow River section in the region by Monday, when the freezing process eased up because of a rise in temperature.

"The length of frozen Yellow River in Ningxia this year is the longest since 1990. The average temperature in recent days has been the lowest since 1984. Last year the lowest temperature was minus 15 C," said Li Xiaobo with the flood-control office.

In Beijing, the cold front which brought the temperature down to minus 14 C last weekend has gradually moved out and the temperature is beginning to recover, said Zhang Mingying with the Beijing meteorological station.

(China Daily January 8, 2003)