YICHANG, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Three Gorges Project officials have denied there is the possibility of power generation in the Three Gorges Area being affected by prolonged drought in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

    "Looking back at historical records from the past 130 years, there have never been two successive years when a serious drop in the amount of water flowing into the mainstream of the Yangtze has occurred," Yuan said.

    "The Yangtze was at its lowest level last year since records began in 1877," said Yuan, "but I believe it is unlikely there will be a significant drop in the inflow of water into the Three Gorges Reservoir from the upper reaches this year.

    "Therefore, power generation in the Three Gorges Area will not be affected," he said.

    Observers, however, expressed concern that Yuan fails to take consideration of the issue of climate change.

    The Ministry of Water Resources Wang Shucheng said earlier this month that extreme and abnormal climatic phenomena like drought and floods have occurred more frequently due to global warming in recent years.

    More than 2.62 million people in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality on the upstream of the Three Gorges have been suffering from drinking water shortages since late February.

    Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of China Three Gorges Project Corp., said the Three Gorges Reservoir had gained a storage capacity of 11 billion cubic meters of water after the water level retained in the reservoir was raised to 156 meters last October.

    "With the reservoir's newly gained storage capacity, we can regulate the use of water needed for power generation in an efficient way and make sure that electricity is produced evenly," said Cao.

    Cao's comments appear to contradict those of Yuan Jie early in February when the Three Gorges Project Corporation told Xinhua that the water level in the reservoir was being lowered to feed the drought-ravaged river.

    "The water level in the reservoir will fall by four meters from the current 155 meters," he said.

    Three or four additional power generation units will help to boost electricity generation in the latter half of the year, which will serve as a powerful guarantee of fulfilling this year's power production goal, said Cao.

    "I am sure that even if there was a drop of 10 percent to 15 percent in the amount of water flowing into the mainstream of the Yangtze this year compared with an average year, we can still meet the power production target set for the Three Gorges Area," said the deputy general manager.

    China Three Gorges Project Corp. signed a contract with the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) last December to sell 370 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity in the forthcoming five years.

    In accordance with the power generation plan, the Three Gorges Project, where 14 generating units are in operation, and the Gezhouba project with 21 generating units, will produce 78.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity this year, according to Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of China Three Gorges Project Corp.

    The Three Gorges Project alone had generated more than 150 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity by mid-March this year since July 10, 2003, when the project began power generation, and has chalked up 38 billion yuan (about 4.75 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue.