China floods: 100,000 on Yangtze evacuated, Leshan Buddha at risk
Water intake at Three Gorges Dam expected to reach highest level since it was built in 2003 amid torrential rain.
Published On 19 Aug 2020
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated from areas on the upper reaches of China‘s Yangtze river as flooding threatened a 1,200-year-old World Heritage Site.
Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try and protect the 71-metre (233-foot) Leshan Giant Buddha, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Sichuan province, as muddy water rose over its toes for the first time since 1949, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
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Sichuan, situated along the Yangtze, raised its emergency response to the maximum level on Tuesday to cope with a new round of torrential rainfall.
The Yangtze Water Resources Commission, the government body that oversees the river, declared a red alert late on Tuesday, saying water at some monitoring stations was expected to exceed “guaranteed” flood protection levels by more than five metres (16.4 feet).
The Three Gorges Project, a massive hydroelectric facility designed in part to tame floods on the Yangtze, is expected to see water inflows rise to 74,000 cubic metres per second on Wednesday, the highest since it was built, the Ministry of Water Resources said.
Stranded residents in SW China's Sichuan province were evacuated to safety on Tuesday. Sichuan activated the highest level of #flood control response for the first time on record, as rain ravaged parts of the province. pic.twitter.com/0GavAZAXVg
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) August 19, 2020
The #ThreeGorges Dam in C China's #Hubei has been ready to face the largest ever flood peak since it was built in 2003 by coordinating with dams at its upper stream in Yangtze River to retain the flood water. https://t.co/a9g6RNiIxT pic.twitter.com/3ux4aabM9I
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 19, 2020
The project restricts the amount of water flowing downstream by storing it in its reservoir, which has been at least 10 metres (33 feet) higher than its official warning level for more than a month.
The facility was forced to raise water discharge volumes on Tuesday in order to “reduce flood control pressures”, the water ministry said.
Authorities have been at pains to show that the cascade of giant dams and reservoirs built along the Yangtze’s upper reaches have shielded the region from the worst of the floods this year, although critics say they might be making things worse.
Source: Reuters