The frozen section of the Yellow River has expanded to more than 1,100 km as temperatures remained very low in areas along the river.

An official with the Yellow River Conservancy Committee (YRCC) said the frozen sections have spread in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the river, making the situation for preventing ice runs grave.

River freezing can pose a hazard to the safety of embankments along some narrow and winding sections, where a large amount of ice often accumulates in cold weather.

The river section upstream of Qingtongxia water control facility inside Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has been frozen since late January under the impact of a sustained low temperature, which has hovered around minus 20 or so degrees Celsius.

The water level has risen abruptly in the waterway in Zhongning County as a large amount of ice has built up and clogged the natural course of the water.

On Monday, in four places, water flowed over levees or flowed through holes built in the embankments, inundating 1,340 hectares of arable land or tidal zones.

Dozens of residents were forced to evacuate.

Flood control officials in Ningxia and Zhongning lost no time in organizing manpower to solidify and raise the height of the levees and plug holes in the dikes.

Weather forecasts predict the cold weather will stay for several more days to come in the Yellow River Valley.

The Yellow River Conservancy Committee has told local departments to step up patrols along the riverside, watch the weather and ice flows closely so that efficient measures can be adopted in case of new crises.

The Yellow River, the second longest in China, originates in Qinghai Province, northwest China, flows through Gansu Province, Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces before emptying into Bohai Sea.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)