China's third-longest river, the Huaihe, is to resume flowing directly into the sea this year, ending its notorious 800-year history of frequent flooding.
A 164-km waterway will be completed toward the end of the year and the river, deprived of its access to the Bohai Sea during a flooding of the Yellow River, will no longer empty into the country's longest river, the Yangtze, but will be diverted mainly into the Yellow Sea by a new waterway, reported Xinhua News Agency.
Historical data show that in 1194the Yellow River changed its course and flowed over the lower reaches of the Huaihe, reshaping the topography of the Huaihe River Valley and forcing the Huaihe to flow into the Hongze Lake, which empties into the Yangtze, one of the rivers most liable to floods.
The changed course resulted in far more frequent obstruction and flooding of the Huaihe.
Between 1400and 1900,death and destruction were caused by 350major floods, three times as many as before the river was stopped from flowing directly into the sea.
Cao Weimin,director of the Huaihe Waterway Construction Administration, said that the new channel will not only enable the Huaihe to withstand any once-a-century flood but will also go some way to reducing flooding of the Yangtze.
The digging of the channel began in 1998at a cost of 4.2billion yuan (US$506million).
The project is of special social, economic and environmental significance to China since the people in many areas along the Huaihe River Valley have long been troubled by floods, Cao said.
"It is one of the major achievements China has made in its efforts to improve the environment and maintain sustainable development," Cao said.
He was referring to the success in bringing down silt levels of the Yangtze for the first time in 50years and making water flow again all along the Tarim River in north-western Xinjiang Autonomous Region,30years after the lower reaches had dried up.
More than 60,000farmers have had to give up their homes to make way for the new channel. One of them,Wang Jiasheng,who has lived in the river valley for more than 60years,moved into his new residence by the waterway yesterday.
"Huaihe floods have always worried us.The river washed away my house about 20times,"Wang said."Now I'm relieved,at last."
The 1,100-kilometer-long Huaihe is located between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
The Huaihe River Valley covers Henan,Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, with a population of about 150million.
(eastday.com June 5, 2002)
