Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200812/20081220/article_385242.htm
Dam trials force 938 evacuations
Created: 2008-12-20 1:56:23
GEOLOGICAL hazards have forced 938 people to be evacuated in central China's Hubei Province. The hazards occurred after trial water storage operations for the Three Gorges Project began three months ago.
Water levels behind the dam rose from 145m on September 28 to 172.3m, the projected goal for this year, at the end of last month. The reservoir holds more than 19.3 billion cubic meters of water.
Rising water levels led to 26 geological disasters including landslides and mud-flows. No casualties were reported, Wang Guoyao, vice secretary general of the Hubei provincial government, said at a conference on geological disasters in the capital city of Wuhan on Thursday.
The people whose houses were under threat had been moved to safe areas where new homes would be built for them. Some are living with relatives, he said.
"Experts, officials and villagers have been closely monitoring the geological condition along the banks and are working to improve disaster-control methods," he said. "Each monitoring team is required to submit geological reports every day."
"Thanks to the efforts to control the geological hazards, the banks of the reservoir area are stable according to our observations," said Li Lierong, who is in charge of the mitigation of Three Gorges geological disasters.
He led a team on a safety survey along more than 1,000 kilometers of embankments during the water storage operations.
"Because of the complicated natural and geological conditions in the reservoir area, lots of landslides had occurred since the Song Dynasty (960-1279)," he said.
"We predicted disasters during the water storage operations. The situation is under control now. But we will continue to monitor the unstable sites."
The water level is expected to reach 175m and be fully functional for flood control when the Three Gorges Project is completed. The US$22.5-billion project is a complex water control system at the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
Water levels behind the dam rose from 145m on September 28 to 172.3m, the projected goal for this year, at the end of last month. The reservoir holds more than 19.3 billion cubic meters of water.
Rising water levels led to 26 geological disasters including landslides and mud-flows. No casualties were reported, Wang Guoyao, vice secretary general of the Hubei provincial government, said at a conference on geological disasters in the capital city of Wuhan on Thursday.
The people whose houses were under threat had been moved to safe areas where new homes would be built for them. Some are living with relatives, he said.
"Experts, officials and villagers have been closely monitoring the geological condition along the banks and are working to improve disaster-control methods," he said. "Each monitoring team is required to submit geological reports every day."
"Thanks to the efforts to control the geological hazards, the banks of the reservoir area are stable according to our observations," said Li Lierong, who is in charge of the mitigation of Three Gorges geological disasters.
He led a team on a safety survey along more than 1,000 kilometers of embankments during the water storage operations.
"Because of the complicated natural and geological conditions in the reservoir area, lots of landslides had occurred since the Song Dynasty (960-1279)," he said.
"We predicted disasters during the water storage operations. The situation is under control now. But we will continue to monitor the unstable sites."
The water level is expected to reach 175m and be fully functional for flood control when the Three Gorges Project is completed. The US$22.5-billion project is a complex water control system at the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
Xinhua
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