Nearly 3,000 people in east China's Anhui Province have been patrolling the embankments on the upper middle reaches of Huaihe River while a new flood peak was passing by early on Saturday.

The flood peak, the second this year, reached Wangjiaba, a key hydrological station on the upper middle reaches of Huaihe River, at 4 a.m., and the water level in the river then rose to 28.23 meters, 0.73 meters above the danger line, while the water flowed at a speed of 3,970 cu m per second, said a source with the Huaihe River Water Resources Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The water level at Wangjiaba was at 27.91 meters at 8 a.m. on Friday, 0.41 meters above the danger line. And the water flow was 3,200 cu m per second.

The rising level of the river was caused by concentrated rainfall in the valley of the Huaihe River from Monday through to Wednesday, said the committee.

Wangjiaba station began to monitor a rise in the level of water at 8 a.m. on Tuesday from the mark of 21.2 meters, and the rising trend lasted for 92 hours.

The flood peak continued to surge eastwardly after passing by Wangjiaba.

The first flood crest occurred on April 22, and the water level monitored at Wangjiaba was 27.78 meters. It was the largest spring flooding since 1964.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has sent a working team to give guidance in the flood control efforts over Huaihe River.

The Huaihe, one of China's most flood-prone rivers, runs between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, running through Henan Province in central China and Anhui and Jiangsu provinces before entering the Yangtze River via Hongze Lake.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2008)