Locals, soldiers join hands as water levels rise
Print Edition
AS water sits two meters above the alert level in vast Fanghu Lake in east China’s Jiangxi Province, soldiers use forklifts to pour gravel to reinforce the embankment.
They are helped in their task by locals, many of them working furiously to fill sandbags with earth beside the lake, a 30 square kilometer body of water connected to the even mightier Yangtze River.
With China struggling with disastrous this summer, the dangerously high water levels in Fanghu Lake could cause yet more misery.
“We are facing huge pressure from possible floods,” said Leng Ling, an officer with the fourth division of the Armed Police Hydropower Forces (APHF) at the site.
The 40-plus members of Leng’s division have been working day and night over the past month to strengthen dams, rescue residents from their flooded homes and send anyone sick or injured to hospital.
“A few days ago, we were working to strengthen the dam in Jingdezhen City, which was almost inundated,” Leng said. “The troops kept working in the water and did not sleep for more than 50 hours.”
Since the high water season began in early June, China has mobilized soldiers, officials and the public to guard against flooding, which has left 160 people dead and 28 missing in 11 provincial regions by Thursday.
According to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the water levels of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze and major fresh-water lakes like Poyang and Dongting are all rising, exceeding warning lines in many sections. Jiangxi has seen 15 percent more rain than previous years. The deluge has caused the water levels of the Yangtze to rise and flow back to its tributaries and lakes.
For Wu Aoxiang, the situation has meant intense work on the front line.
Wu, ordinarily a chef for his division under the APHF, has been braving heavy rain and extreme heat to fix embankments in Jiangxi.
“When the sky clears, it gets very hot and it’s easy to get sunburnt while working,” said Wu, 23. “All the soldiers’ skin has turned very, very dark.”
Wu’s arms are a bizarre red and peeling. His feet have also blistered because they are constantly submerged in water. But Wu said he has become used to it. “I put saving people’s lives first,” he added.
So far, the floods have swept away three dams and an embankment in Jiangxi, with more than 4 million people threatened. Four people have been killed and another remains missing. More than 300,000 hectares of crops have been damaged and 4,252 houses toppled, leading to a direct economic loss of 6.2 billion yuan (US$928 million), according to government figures.
In Pengze County, official and elementary school teacher Yang Kai has spent the past four days patrolling an embankment, inspecting it for seepage. Many of the houses in his village have already been flooded with water from Poyang Lake.
Under such circumstances, local officials and residents have all been urged to join the battle against the floods.
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