Photo: Cui Meng/GT

 
Amid the severe floods in southern China, an expert from China’s Ministry of Water Resources said that the flood won’t cause the same damage as the 1998 floods, as this time it’s only a regional flood and the flood control capacity of the Yangtze River has improved greatly compared with two decades ago.

In an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Tuesday, Li Na, head of the flood control and assessment department with the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, which is administrated by China’s Ministry of Water Resources, said that this year’s flood is still a regional flood, so the damage it causes will be much smaller than that of the 1998 floods.

Although the water continues to exceed warning levels, the flood is mainly concentrated in certain areas, said Li.

Li also said that the Yangtze River’s capacity to resist flooding has greatly improved compared with two decades ago, partly thanks to the Three Gorges Dam, whose construction was finished in 2009, with flood control storage of 22 billion cubic meters. 

Reservoirs equipped with flood prevention functions were built on many of the Yangtze River’s branches within the two decades, helping flood control storage, according to Li.

In addition, advanced technology helps with monitoring, forecasting and coordination of flood control, said Li.

Li said that even if the 1998 floods made a comeback now, the current flood prevention system in the Yangtze River would be capable of resisting it. But the river spans a large area and it is inevitable that some branches and regions will suffer, Li noted.

She warned that the real ordeal for China will come if flooding continues to ravage upper and middle streams of the Yangtze River.

The expert said it is difficult to predict whether the flood will recede in the near future. “It largely depends on the location and the amount of rain. The rainfall is moving north and will influence the Yellow River and other rivers in the north,” said Li, noting that unlike the south, rivers in the north did not experience much flooding in the past, which makes it hard for them to resist floods. 

The key for flood prevention work at this moment would be to transfer people who have been affected, and to closely monitor big rivers that are ravaged, in order to make early arrangements and prepare for the rescue work.