ĦĦHEFEI, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Farmers in east China have been warned their croplands may be inundated in order to prevent the flood-prone Huaihe River bursting its banks as continuous rain pushed its waters close to the danger level.
Water levels are expected to reach 29.3 meters, the newly adjusted danger mark at which sluices are usually opened, by Tuesday.
"If that is the reality, we will have to divert some water," said Qian Min, director of the Huaihe River Water Resources Committee.
Qian, also deputy head of Huaihe River Flood Control Headquarters, instructed local authorities to prepare for possible major flooding.
Heavy rains have driven up the level in the Huaihe mainstream and by 10:00 a.m. Monday, the level at Wangjiaba, a key hydrological station, was 28.7 meters, 1.2 meters above the warning mark, while water flow was 4,460 cu m per second.
If the river exceeded the danger level at Wangjiaba, sluices could be opened and croplands in the Mengwa flood storage area, a buffer zone where more than 150,000 people live, could be affected.
"The flood control situation is very grave because the weather forecast says concentrated rainfalls will continue in areas along the Huaihe River in the next two days," said Qian.
The Huaihe River, the third longest waterway in China, runs between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, cutting through Henan Province in central China and east China's Anhui and Jiangsu provinces before entering the Yangtze River via Hongze Lake.
Continuous rainfall since the beginning of July has caused floods in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, where more than 8.66million people have been affected, and 1.19 million hectares of farmland were inundated.
A sluice on Hongze Lake was opened on Wednesday to maintain a safe water level. It was the first discharge from the lake this year.
Meanwhile, 326,000 personnel in the three affected provinces have been organized to patrol embankments along both banks of the 1,000-km-long Huaihe River, but no emergencies have been reported to date.
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