Beijing, July 13: Some 1.6 million people, including thousands of army personnel, are guarding the embankments of the swollen Huaihe river and its tributaries in China's battle against floodwaters, state media reported today. The river valley, home to 150 milion people, is one of the country's major grain producing areas and has been hit by heavy rainstorms in recent weeks, affecting tens of millions of residents and inundating several million hectares of farmland.

The floodwater crest is moving rapidly towards the middle reaches of the river, where it has been flowing over the warning marks for more than 40 hours, officials at the Huaihe flood control headquarters said. The high levels will stay for a long time and many embankments risk being breached any time, officials in the eastern province of Anhui warned.

By Friday, they had detected and reinforced 24 such threatened sections.

Authorities are preparing to use more floodwater diversion areas, Xinhua reported.
In this endeavour, preparations are on to make chengxi lake, the largest such area in the Huaihe river valley, ready to take more floodwaters.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao inspected the flood control work along the river ravaged by the worst flooding since 1991 and gave necessary instructions.

Bureau Report