Authorities diverted high river waters to low-lying areas in central China yesterday, easing the pressure on densely populated urban and industrial areas downstream but putting thousands of hectares of farmland at risk.
The extraordinary measure follows days of steady rainfall that have pushed water levels on the Huai River to dangerous levels. Flooding, a perpetual misery in China, has killed at least 101 people this year and forced the evacuations of about 800,000.
Sluice gates at the Wangjiaba dam were opened around noon yesterday on orders from Water Resources Minister Chen Lei (
The flooded area includes 12,000 hectares of cropland, Xinhua said, but did not indicate how much of that would be ruined.
The sacrifice is aimed at saving much larger swaths of cropland, along with industrial and urban areas populated by millions of people along the Huai, which flows through densely populated farm land between China's two major rivers, the Yellow and Yangtze.
Xinhua said the impact on residents of the Mengwa buffer zone would be limited because most lived in homes built on elevated platforms and those living in exposed low-lying areas had been moved to higher ground.
The Huai travels through densely populated farm land between China's two major rivers, the Yellow and Yangtze. Its basin forms a complex system of lakes, tributaries, and canals, that carries water at a sluggish pace to the Yangtze and Pacific Ocean, making flooding a regular occurrence during the summer rainy season.
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