China's reservoirs face severe flooding threat: Official
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-26 13:52
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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