BEIJING XINHUA - Thanks to its all-out nationwide water conservancy construction, China has suffered less losses from flooding this year despite higher water levels in some parts of the Yangtze, the major flooding river, than in last year's catastrophe.
Gao Juncai, a senior official with the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), said the government has invested heavily in water conservancy projects since 1998.
Total investment during this period hit 63 billion yuan (7.6 billion US dollars), of which 46.5 billion yuan (5.6 billion US dollars) came from the issuance of treasury bonds. Taking into account loans from World bank and foreign governments, the sum will amount to 100 billion (12 billion US dollars), three times the 1995-1997 figure.
By the end of June this year, embankments along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and Dongting, Poyang and Taihu lakes and other rivers and lakes measuring a total of 6,200 km have been reinforced, and 4.6 million tons of silt from river beds have been removed.
Experts spoke highly of these projects, saying that they have reduced the risks for accidents and losses remarkably during this year's flooding season.
The August figures showed that the people affected by floodwater this year was only 58.8 percent of the flood victims last year, with casualties standing still lower at 28.8 percent, in spite of the high water levels on the Yangtze's middle and lower reaches. Meanwhile, direct economic losses were cut by 63.5 percent.
At the same time, there were fewer accidents in most flood- ravaged regions, with water levels even higher than that of last year in some of its places, Gao said.
The government has also appropriated adequate funding to key water control projects, including the Xiaolangdi project on the Yellow river, to the renovation of water detention reservoirs, and to water-soil conservation projects on the upper reaches of the Yangtze and the Yellow river.
At the same time, a 3.5-billion-yuan investment on a relocation project involving the participation of one million people has already paid off, as the flood victims of last year have settled down while a combined area of 1,500-sq-km land has been turned into lakes for floodwater absorption.
According to the Chinese government's anti-flood blueprint, embankments along the Yangtze will be able to fend off any possible full-scale deluges in 10 years' time.
Copyright (c) 1999 Comtex Scientific Corporation