Thanks to the country's heavy investment in flood-control projects since 1998, the thousands of kilometers of levees along the flood-prone Yangtze are already massively reinforced, Wang said.

In fact, authorities do not expect major reinforcement work will be needed along the levees for the next 50 to 100 years.

Following 1998's devastating flooding which claimed 1,562 lives in five provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, the central government poured 160 billion yuan (US$19.2 billion) into construction of water conservation projects, Wang said.

The investment, excluding money spent on the construction of the mammoth Three Gorges Project, accounts for 70 percent of China's total input towards all kinds of water-control projects since 1949, when New China was founded.

Most of the government's 160 billion yuan investment for water-control projects was spent on reinforcing or building flood-control infrastructure along China's major rivers, according to Wang.

Most of the funds were raised by the government through issuance of nationwide special public bonds.

For the Yangtze alone, some 29 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion) was earmarked during the 1998-2002 period to consolidate the roughly 3,000-kilometre-long major levees shielding vast areas along the river's middle and lower reaches.

"Such massive investment for water conservancy projects was unprecedented in China's history and the world's history as well,'' Wang said.

Wang said he is confident that "in the next 50 to 100 years, there will be no need for China to launch another large-scale reinforcement of the levees there.''

So far, no major flood-related mishaps have occurred along the main levees of the Yangtze, even though the river has been hit by flood crests as reported by the provinces stretching along its middle reaches, the minister said.

In Central China's Hunan Province, now facing its worst flood threat this year, the 215-kilometre embankment has not been breached despite six flood peaks having passed through. The peaks caused no major damage.

By contrast, 4,150 people were killed across China during 1998's summer floods which swept over China's 29 provinces, causing 255.1 billion yuan's (US$30.7 billion) worth of direct economic damage, affecting more than 22 million hectares of crops and causing more than 6.8 million houses to collapse.

On the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze's main streams, as well as areas around Dongting and Poyang lakes, more than 2.2 million locals were affected during the flooding which inundated 197,000 hectares of farmland following the crumbling of 1,075 embankments.

Although "this year's flood season is almost over, three of its characteristics need to be stressed,'' Wang said.

First, heavy damages were caused by rain-induced mudflows, sluice-gate failures and mountain torrents in a few areas in the provinces of Shaanxi, Fujian, Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality as precipitation reached a record 300 to 400 millimeters in 24 hours.

Second, China's major rivers have remained peaceful without dangerous emergencies reported except the recent high-water levels in some sections of the Yangtze.

Third, North and Northwest China are facing a worsening drought as rainfall in the early period of this year's flood season has not produced enough runoff to Northern China's rivers.

(China Daily August 27, 2002)