The Chinese government has dispatched 16,542 troops in 60 groups to
evacuate 630,000 people threatened by floodwaters, and to repair
and reinforce embankments in the swollen Huaihe River Valley in the
past two weeks.
Sources with the Nanjing Military Command said on Friday they had
dispatched 16,042 troops with 1,017 motor vehicles and 104 boats in
flood-related operations by July 11 in Anhui Province, east
China.
They had reinforced 1,133 km of embankments and shipped 140,000
tons of materials on the middle and lower reaches of the river and
its tributaries.
The Jinan Military Command on Friday also dispatched 500 soldiers
to the upper reaches of the Huaihe River to guard a threatened
section of the Shiguan River, a tributary of the Huaihe, in Henan
Province.
On
Friday, the water levels in the trunk stream of the Huaihe River
started rising to record highs at three major hydrological stations
in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River due to continuous rains
in the past three days.
In
a bid to curb the rising water levels, flood control authorities on
Friday ordered Huaihe Flood Control Commission to divert water from
the river to areas designed for storing and diverting
floodwater.
But the flood situation is showing no signs of abating as weather
forecasts warn of more rainstorms on July 12.
The Huaihe River originates in Henan Province, central China, and
runs through Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces in east China
before emptying into the Yellow Sea.
The valley, home to some 150 million residents, has been one of the
major grain-producing areas of China.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)
