South China's Guangdong Province has decided to discharge reservoir water again to set free 215 vessels grounded on the Beijiang River because of a two-month drought.

The Feilai Gorge Reservoir on the river, located about 40 kilometers northeast of Qingyuan City, will discharge water from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM on December 24 with a flux of 800 cubic meters per second to ease the traffic jam at lower reaches, the provincial flood and drought control headquarters said on Friday.

The move is expected to help the Beijiang river, which has fallen to the lowest level of less than one meter with its width narrowing from 1,000 meters to 200 meters, reopen to navigation, according to the marine affairs bureau of Qingyuan City.

A drought since October has seen the river keep shrinking and vessels have grounded on the river section in Qingyuan since the beginning of this month.

Over the past 10 days, the Feilai Gorge Reservoir has discharged water four times to raise the water level of the Beijiang, however, the result has not been satisfactory.

By Friday, the number of waiting vessels, some of which had been trapped for more than two weeks, had reached 215, according to the city's marine affairs bureau.

Irrigation and shipping facilities were affected, particularly coal and cement transport, which usually peaks in winter, according to the bureau.

Winding about 470 km through the northern part of Guangdong, the Beijiang River is the second largest tributary of the Pearl River and it is also a major waterway in Guangdong.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2007)