(Yicai) July 8 -- A dike on Dongting Lake, the country’s second-largest freshwater lake, was breached on July 5 after several days of heavy rain. Repair teams are busy working and this ‘first-line-of-defense’ should be fixed by noon tomorrow, according to the local government.

The breach, which was originally 226 meters long, had been narrowed by 168 meters as of 3 p.m. and there remains a gap of 58 meters, state broadcaster China Central Television reported, citing the flood control and drought relief headquarters in Yueyang, central Hunan province. The Dongting Lake embankment is 3,471 kilometers long.

At 4 p.m. on July 5, a 10-meter breach occurred on the embankment in Tuanzhou township of Huarong county in the city of Yueyang and within one hour it had expanded to 100 meters, Zhang Yingchun, executive deputy governor of Hunan province said at a press conference yesterday.

Some 5,755 residents had been relocated as of July 6 and there have been no reported injuries or casualties.

Dongting Lake accounts for 96.7 percent of Hunan province’s catchment area. Torrential rains have affected water levels in several major rivers in the province, such as the Xiangjiang River, Zijiang River, Yuanjiang River and Lishui River, and the water will eventually flow into Dongting Lake.

The water levels in Dongting Lake, which reached as high as 34.3 meters on July 4, according to the Chenglingji hydrological station. This had subsided to 33.2 meters as of dawn today, but it is still 0.2 meters above the warning level.

Editor: Kim Taylor