The Linhuaigang Flood Control Project, the first water control
project on China's third longest river, the Huaihe River, was
completed on Monday after five years of construction.
The project is expected to play a key role in controlling
flooding of the Huaihe River, one of the most flood-prone rivers in
China, according to the Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of
Water Resources.
Located on the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, the project
consists of a 78-kilometer-long dam, a reservoir with a storage
capacity of 8.56 billion cubic meters, irrigation channels and
sluices.
The project, which has cost 2.27 billion yuan (about US$ 283
million), is designed to protect more than 666,000 hectares of
farmland and 6 million local residents from the threat of
floods.
It is also one of the 19 key projects under the Huaihe River
management blueprint and has been listed as one of the major
projects in the national economic and social development plan.
The 1,000-km-long river is notorious for its frequent floods.
Three hundred floods have been recorded over the past 500 years,
endangering the lives of people in the river valley. The area now
produces 18 percent of the country's food grain and 15 percent of
its coal.
The river flows through four central and eastern Chinese
provinces, namely Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu.
Since 1950, thousands of reservoirs have been built and dozens
of lakes and depressions have been turned into flood-storage
zones.
(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2006)