The Linhuaigang Flood Control Project, the first water control project on China's third longest river, the Huaihe River, was completed on Monday after five years of construction.

The project is expected to play a key role in controlling flooding of the Huaihe River, one of the most flood-prone rivers in China, according to the Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources.

Located on the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, the project consists of a 78-kilometer-long dam, a reservoir with a storage capacity of 8.56 billion cubic meters, irrigation channels and sluices.

The project, which has cost 2.27 billion yuan (about US$ 283 million), is designed to protect more than 666,000 hectares of farmland and 6 million local residents from the threat of floods.

It is also one of the 19 key projects under the Huaihe River management blueprint and has been listed as one of the major projects in the national economic and social development plan.

The 1,000-km-long river is notorious for its frequent floods. Three hundred floods have been recorded over the past 500 years, endangering the lives of people in the river valley. The area now produces 18 percent of the country's food grain and 15 percent of its coal.

The river flows through four central and eastern Chinese provinces, namely Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu.

Since 1950, thousands of reservoirs have been built and dozens of lakes and depressions have been turned into flood-storage zones.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2006)