China's water reservoirs are struggling to cope with higher-than-average rainfall this year.

More rainfall has been reported in major rivers in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2005.

Problems with China's 85,000 reservoirs lie in the way they have been managed, said Wang Shucheng, minister of water resources, at a national flood control meeting on Tuesday in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The ability of small hydropower stations, which have seen rapid development in the past few years, to withstand floods is also a grave concern due to the lack of proper management, said Wang.

Wang urged local authorities to bear the responsibility of flood control by laying out plans for flood prevention and control and reinforcing supervision.

Statistics from the Water Resources Ministry show that water in the main branches of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, China's three major rivers, saw a 10 to 30 percent increase in the first three months, over the same period last year.

Large reservoirs in 21 provinces and regions, especially in northwest China's Qinghai, and northeast China's Jilin and Liaoning, have reported higher water levels than last year.?
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(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2006)