As the chance for Yangtze River to experience big floods keeps rising, people residing in various provinces and municipalities along the Yangtze River have begun to take substantial measures to prepare against the possible floods, the Yangtze River Flood Control Committee said on Friday.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) predicted earlier that the Yangtze River might encounter big floods this year.

In light of this information, flood prevention work has been kicked off along the Yangtze River recently. Member of the Yangtze River Flood Control Committee recently went to inspect the flood prevention work in Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shanghai. Officials from these places have started to implement a job responsibility system and work out flood prevention schemes.

In addition, more flood prevention materials have been put in place.

Anti-flood teams have also been formed ready for their task.

Improperly placed devices and equipment have been removed to clear the river channel.

Meanwhile, damaged dykes, reservoirs and other water conservancy projects have been repaired or reinforced.

The Yangtze River Flood Control Committee estimates that the people in the aforementioned areas have repaired about 307,000 damaged water conservancy projects, reinforced dykes amounting to 2,200 kilometers in length, dredged river channels measuring 5,000 kilometers long, and solidified 2,800 reservoirs.

It is reported that the Three Gorges Dam will make room to store some 6 billion cubic meters of flood waters. As a result of this change, the flood prevention capacity of the Yangtze River Jingjiang Section is substantially raised.

Officials from Hubei Province have begun to do some renovation work in over 40 reservoirs that should no longer be used. They have also allocated 30 million yuan to reinforce some fragile parts of the river dyke. It can be said that the flood emergency prevention work has been completed in the Jingjiang section.

In Yueyang, Hunan Province, many major dykes along the Yangtze River trunk line have been reinforced, and the dangerous parts of some 160 projects repaired.

In Shanghai, the seawalls and dykes have been extended. Flood prevention work duty has been assigned to authorities at district and township levels. With these efforts, Shanghai people are fully prepared meet the challenges of floods and typhoons in their city.
 
(Chinanews.cn May 26, 2007)