China Three Gorges Corporation defended the ongoing plan to raise water level in reservoir to 175 meters during dry season, saying its water storage will help prepare for possible worse drought in coming months.

"Compared with last year, we have much less discord between the water storage and water supplies this year," Yuan Jie, chief of the control center of the China Three Gorges Corporation, told Xinhua.

Beginning Sunday morning, the Three Gorges project had increased its water flow to downstream to over 9,000 cubic meters per second, about 38 percent more than originally planned, to relieve the drought situation downstream.

The runoff from upstream of the Three Gorges Dam dropped to around 10,700 cubic meters Sunday morning.

Yuan said though the ongoing water storage plan did have an effect on the Yangtze River's middle and lower reaches areas but their effort will help improve water supplies in those areas during the most dry January-February season next year.

Continuous severe drought were reported in Hunan, Jiangxi provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China's Guangdong Province over the past month, leaving more than 1.5 million people short of drinking water and thousands of hectares of cropland thirsty.

Demands for the Three Gorges Dam to discharge more reservoir water were on the increase, forcing the project to slow down its water-raising pace to 175 meters, a target that was rescheduled to early November from the end of October.

The water level of the Three Gorges reservoir stood at 170.47 meters at around 11:00 a.m. Sunday.

Zheng Shouren, Chief Engineer of the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, said those blaming the drought in Hunan and Jiangxi solely on the Three Gorges project got a partial picture.