Water Levels Drop Along Yangtze as Work Goes On to Brace Dykes for Second Surge(Yicai Global) July 16 -- After many days of torrential rain, the weather in most parts of China’s Jiangxi province cleared up this week. Lower precipitation has led to a gradual drop in the water level of the province’s Poyang, the country’s largest freshwater lake.
Poyang Water Level Station recorded a level of 22.3 meters, down 0.45 meters from 22.75 meters at 7.00 a.m. local time on July 12, and below a peak of 22.61 meters set in 1998. But the level was still 2.8 meters above the 19.5-meters warning mark.
The lake covered 4,206 square kilometers on July 8, according to satellite monitoring data, a 30 percent expansion from its usual 3,200 sq. km.
A possible return of the flood peak is a key reason why local governments are still on high alert even as the waters ebb.
Strong rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River will be sustained for the next 10 days, so the risk of further disaster is very high, Wang Zhihua, a spokesman for the China Meteorological Administration, said at a press conference today.
Continuing flood control work along the Yangtze River as well as the Poyang, Dongting and Taihu lakes is necessary, he added.
Emergency reconstruction work in Jiangxi is also in progress at the same time as rescue and relief efforts. The Poyang county’s financial department had allocated nearly CNY20 million (USd2.86 million) by July 14 to relocate those affected and to stem property losses.
A roughly 0.1-meter daily decline in the water level did not do much to ease the situation in areas where the flood burst through banks. When a vehicle carrying Yicai Global reporters passed by the Poyang stretch of the expressway connecting Jiujiang and Jindezhen, they saw submerged farmland and houses on both sides of the highway.
The slowly receding waters bought some time for flood control and disaster relief in Jiangxi. Our correspondents saw many vehicles in Poyang county carrying soil and rock to the levee to strengthen it and prevent another flood peak from overtopping it or its immersion for too long in water, which risks a breach.
Editor: Ben Armour
