Flood fears force huge evacuation

Source: China Daily | 05-28-2008 13:44

More than 150,000 people who face the threat of flooding, should an earthquake-created dam near Beichuan burst its banks, were evacuated last night even as engineers were digging a diversion channel to prevent flooding.

An aerial view of Tangjiashan lake (in red box) near Beichuan county May 27, 2008. Troops were digging a  diversion channel to prevent the lake from bursting its banks and threatening more misery to millions of people downstream. [China Daily]

Local authorities said they evacuated 158,000 people by midnight Tuesday in case Tangjiashan lake - formed when landslides blocked Jianjiang River after the May 12 quake - overflows its banks.

According to contingency plans, up to 1.3 million people from 33 townships of Mianyang city could be relocated if the lake barrier collapsed entirely.

Premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of the State Council quake relief headquarters Tuesday that handling the quake lakes is the "most pressing" task at present.

The water level in the Tangjiashan lake has kept rising and the water diversion channel won't be effective till June 5, experts said Tuesday.

Tangjiashan lake was holding 130 million cu m of water - or the volume of water in about 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools - said Liu Ning, chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources who was at the site to oversee the diversion work.

More than 600 engineers and soldiers were working nonstop at the lake site to dig the channel.

People take part in an evacuation drill in Jiangyou,  Sichuan province May 27, 2008. [Xinhua]

Cai Qihua, of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, said 26 excavators and bulldozers were being used around the clock.

The water is rising by nearly 2 m a day and reached only 23 m below the lowest part of the barrier Tuesday, she said.

Many towns and villages downstream held evacuation drills Tuesday.