China withstands flood crest

The water level did not reach the disastrous 1998 mark

Water levels in central China's huge Lake Dongting appear to be falling after the flood crest of the Yangtze river passed through it overnight.

Officials are still warning that new rainfall could rapidly overcome the mammoth effort to contain the lake but measurements show an overnight fall of two centimetres.

If it doesn't rain for the next three days around Lake Dongting and the Yangtze river the water will continue to fall

Zhang Huaiqiu
lake monitor

"If it doesn't rain for the next three days around Lake Dongting and the Yangtze river the water will continue to fall," said an official at a lakeside monitoring station, Zhang Huaiqiu.

As the Yangtze's flood crest passed, a new alert was being raised downstream in Wuhan, a city of more than seven million people.

The city declared a state of emergency on Saturday night as the Yangtze rose 15 cm above its danger level.

After Wuhan, the flood crest will reach Lake Poyang - not much smaller than Dongting - which is already 1.10 metres above danger level.

Continuing threat

Millions of people have been threatened by the potential deluge in Hunan Province - one of China's most densely populated regions - and 600,000 residents have been evacuated.

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Areas at risk of flooding

Mr Zhang reported that the water level had peaked on Saturday at 34.75 metres at 23:00 (15:00 GMT) but by 08:30 on Sunday it was down to 34.73.

During the flood disaster of 1998, in which some 4,000 people lost their lives, the level was over a metre higher at 35.94.

Despite the encouraging fall, Mr Zhang and other officials warned that even moderate rainfall could overturn the work of emergency workers who have been working flat out to fortify dykes.

Bitter experience

About a million people have been mobilised to help protect the dykes.

Soldiers and civilians patrol the dykes and flood defences around the clock, blocking leaks with sandbags, rocks and soil.

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed

State media say 27,000 houses have collapsed and 415,000 hectares (one million acres) of crops have been damaged in Hunan, China's top rice-growing province.

But the dykes are much stronger there since the floods of 1998.

Hunan spent more than $1bn on reinforcing embankments, moving 350,000 farmers and planting trees.

The controversial Three Gorges Dam now under construction upstream is meant to bring the Yangtze under control, but that will not be finished until 2009.

According to environmentalists, the repeated floods in the Yangtze region are the result of China's degraded environment.

Across China this summer, more than 900 people have died in floods and landslides.