CHONGQING, China, July 23, 2010 (AFP) - China, already reeling from deadly floods, on Friday warned of potential new problems on the Yangtze downstream from the Three Gorges Dam as water levels in its reservoir hit a record high. The warnings came as officials sought to dampen expectations that the dam could completely tame the swelling river amid the worst flooding in a decade, which has left more than 1,000 people dead or missing.
State television said the Three Gorges reservoir hit the dam's 159-metre mark, a record high, following recent heavy rains upstream. Huge amounts of water continued to thunder out of its massive spill-gates.
The government of Jiangxi said the eastern province was at a "critical juncture" and ordered authorities to brace by redoubling flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains. "Over the next 20 to 30 days, the high water level of the Yangtze River's Jiujiang section and Poyang Lake will continue. The flood situation is very grim," the provincial government said in a statement.
Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and linked to the Yangtze, is one of hundreds of major Chinese lakes and rivers whose water levels have exceeded their danger marks. Jiujiang is a city of about five million people. Government authorities in other parts of the region issued similar warnings. Vice Water Resources Minister Liu Ning said this week the Three Gorges Dam -- the world's largest hydroelectric project -- would be a "pillar" against new floods, but other officials began to emphasise its limits.
"The Three Gorges Dam is not a panacea," Wei Shanzhong, deputy director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, was quoted Friday by state media as saying. He said authorities would face a delicate task in coming weeks as they seek to empty the rising reservoir behind the dam as fast as possible without triggering disastrous floods in already waterlogged communities downstream. The flooding has triggered fears of a repeat of disastrous 1998 floods that were the country's worst in recent memory. Twelve years ago record rains swelled the Yangtze, China's longest river, and many tributaries, causing floods that killed at least 4,150 people and forced the evacuation of 18 million.
This year, heavy rain initially caused widespread flooding in eastern and southern China, roughly centred on the Yangtze. But the rains have since shifted to the river's upper reaches, threatening a new flood crest downstream.
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