3 Gorges stands up to flood
Source: Xinhua |
July 21, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
The Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River was holding up against its first major flood-control test yesterday, said officials of the China Three Gorges Corporation.
The flow on the river's upper reaches topped 70,000 cubic meters a second - 20,000 cubic meters more than the flow during the 1998 floods that killed 4,150 people and the highest level since the dam was completed last year.
The flow peaked at 70,000 cubic meters per second at the Three Gorges Dam at 8am, slightly below the record high of 70,800 cubic meters per second in 1981, a spokesman with the corporation said.
The corporation is using the dam, the world's largest, to limit the amount of water flowing further downstream to try to minimize the impact of severe floods.
"Compared to 1998, the biggest difference is the Three Gorges Dam. Without it, thousands of soldiers and rescuers would have been needed to fight the floods," said Yuan Jie, director of the Three Gorges Cascade Dispatching Center of China Three Gorges Corporation.
The upper reaches of Yangtze River covers an area of 1 million square kilometers, 60 percent of which was covered by the Three Gorges monitoring system and another 20 percent was covered by systems of the Dadu and Yalong rivers.
"The peak flow is high, but it has not exceeded the designed capacity of 100,000 cubic meters of water per second," said Cao Guangjing, the corporation's chairman.
The peak flow was greater than in 1998 but the peak period was shorter so far, Cao said.
The discharged amount had been kept under 40,000 cubic meters per second, which prevented severe flooding in the lower reaches, he said.
The Three Gorges Corporation had reduced the reservoir's water level to below 146 meters before the river reached its peak. The reservoir has a capacity of more than 20 billion cubic meters.
The current situation was stable in the lower reaches, said an official of the Bureau of Hydrographic of Yangtze River Water Resources Commission.
The water level has begun to fall in the Hankou area of Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
As of 2pm yesterday, the water flow there dropped to 66,000 cubic meters per second, the official said.
According to the monitoring systems at the dam, power generation continued as normal during the high flow, the official said.
Past floods of the Yangtze River caused huge losses for China in 1931, 1945 and 1998. The floods in 1998 killed 4,150 people, forced more than 18 million people out of their homes and caused economic losses of 255 billion yuan (US$38 billion).
The flow on the river's upper reaches topped 70,000 cubic meters a second - 20,000 cubic meters more than the flow during the 1998 floods that killed 4,150 people and the highest level since the dam was completed last year.
The flow peaked at 70,000 cubic meters per second at the Three Gorges Dam at 8am, slightly below the record high of 70,800 cubic meters per second in 1981, a spokesman with the corporation said.
The corporation is using the dam, the world's largest, to limit the amount of water flowing further downstream to try to minimize the impact of severe floods.
"Compared to 1998, the biggest difference is the Three Gorges Dam. Without it, thousands of soldiers and rescuers would have been needed to fight the floods," said Yuan Jie, director of the Three Gorges Cascade Dispatching Center of China Three Gorges Corporation.
The upper reaches of Yangtze River covers an area of 1 million square kilometers, 60 percent of which was covered by the Three Gorges monitoring system and another 20 percent was covered by systems of the Dadu and Yalong rivers.
"The peak flow is high, but it has not exceeded the designed capacity of 100,000 cubic meters of water per second," said Cao Guangjing, the corporation's chairman.
The peak flow was greater than in 1998 but the peak period was shorter so far, Cao said.
The discharged amount had been kept under 40,000 cubic meters per second, which prevented severe flooding in the lower reaches, he said.
The Three Gorges Corporation had reduced the reservoir's water level to below 146 meters before the river reached its peak. The reservoir has a capacity of more than 20 billion cubic meters.
The current situation was stable in the lower reaches, said an official of the Bureau of Hydrographic of Yangtze River Water Resources Commission.
The water level has begun to fall in the Hankou area of Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
As of 2pm yesterday, the water flow there dropped to 66,000 cubic meters per second, the official said.
According to the monitoring systems at the dam, power generation continued as normal during the high flow, the official said.
Past floods of the Yangtze River caused huge losses for China in 1931, 1945 and 1998. The floods in 1998 killed 4,150 people, forced more than 18 million people out of their homes and caused economic losses of 255 billion yuan (US$38 billion).
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
