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China has spent 39.7 billion yuan (US$4.78 billion) in fortifying the embankments along the Yangtze River, the country's longest, since 1998, when major flooding on the river caused enormous losses in the Yangtze River Basin.
"As a result, the reinforced embankments, with a total length of3,500 km, are still in good shape, despite the fact that this year's flood situation is quite similar to that in 1998," said Cai Qihua, head of the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee which is based in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
According to Cai, the central government provided 26.9 billion yuan (about 3.24 billion US dollars) of the total spending, while the remainder was covered by the local governments of the affected areas.
A great number of high and new technologies have been applied to fortifying the embankments, also dubbed as the "waterside GreatWall", said Cai.
The 6,300-km Yangtze runs through Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, where it empties into the East China Sea.
(eastday.com August 29, 2002)
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