MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The water level of the Tangjiashan quake lake in southwest China's Sichuan Province kept on dropping on Wednesday, while experts warned that dangers remain.
The level reduced to 713.79 meters above sea level at 8 p.m. on Wednesday from Tuesday's highest mark of 743.1 meters, and about two thirds of the quake's 250-million-cubic-meter volume has been discharged, according to the quake lake relief headquarters in Mianyang.
The combo photos taken respectively on June 8 (top L), 11 a.m. (bottom L), 2 p.m (top R). and 3 p.m. on June 10 show different water levels near a railway bridge in Mianyang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
The headquarters, believing the lake's outflow was unlikely to cause flooding for downstream areas, called off an alert on the lake at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, a day after Sichuan's Communist Party chief Liu Qibao declared "a decisive victory" in the drainage efforts.
Water Resources Minister Chen Lei said people who had been relocated because of the lake could now return home with the alert being called off.
However, the minister warned earlier that the lake might still pose dangers.
"There are still some 86 million cubic meters in the lake, which is subject to the threat of aftershocks, landslides, heavy rain," he said.
"Another major test for us is coming as the flood season approaches. The best situation is to completely clear the water from the Tangjiashan Lake before the flood season," Chen said.
Chen said experts with the ministry would fly to the lake area to conduct geological studies and assess the risks on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Tangjiashan quake lake was formed after quake-triggered landslides from Tangjiashan Mountain blocked the Tongkou River running through Beichuan County, one of the worst-hit areas in the May 12 quake. It began to drain on Saturday morning through a manmade spillway.
The drained water flooded the quake-ravaged Beichuan County, then safely passed Mianyang on the Fujiang River on Tuesday, and arrived at Tongnan County, in Chongqing Municipality, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
More than 2,500 people in Tongnan had been relocated before the drained water arrived. However, the flood was smaller than expected and only inundated some crops along the riverbank, said the county government.
The Mianyang government said city water networks had suspended intake from the Fujiang River since Tuesday night as the local water quality-monitoring center found the water was contaminated by the lake outflow.
"The muddy outflow is accompanied with lots of flotsam. Reports from five monitoring stations on the Fujiang River shows the river has been polluted and is not potable," said an official with the center, adding the water quality is expected to return to normal in half a month.
The water supply for more than 500,000 people in Mianyang urban areas now come from underground reserves before the river water quality improved and the government would ensure 50 liters of drinking water for per person per day, according to the city government.
The Mianyang Water Affairs Group Limited, which is in charge of more than 80 percent of the water supply for the city's urban districts, resumed intake from Fujiang River at around 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
"But water supply won't resume until the intake sample passes official examination," said Zhang Yuchuan, a manager with the group.
Though the swollen Fujiang River has not caused flooding in Chongqing, the municipality, a neighbor of the quake-hit Sichuan, also prepared for the potential water pollution.
The Fujiang River entered the Jialing River, a major water source of Chongqing's urban districts, home to 7 million people, on Wednesday morning at Hechuan County.
Chongqing's environmental protection department has kept a close eye on the water quality and issued monitoring reports every two hours.
"So far, the Jialing River's water quality is okay, but if it is found to be polluted, we will close intakes from Jialing and the water supply will all come from the Yangtze River," said an official with the city's waterworks company, who declined to be named.
Chongqing's urban districts have nine intakes from
the Jialing River. Even if they were all closed, the water supply would have
been guaranteed to meet the need, said the official.
Picture taken on June 10, 2008 from a
helicopter shows flood submerge part of Beichuan County in southewest
China's Sichuan Province.The influx and outflow of the lake reached a
balance at the current water level, according to the Tangjiashan Lake
emergency rescue headquarters on Tuesday. The lake's dam was also more
secure after the water level in the lake reduced to between 720 and 721
meters at 5 p.m. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior
official said here on Tuesday that a "decisive victory" have been achieved in
the drainage of China's main quake lake Tangjiashan.
Liu Qibao, Communist Party chief of the southwestern
Sichuan Province, made the remarks after about half of the quake's water have
been discharged and the number of people under threat has dropped from 1.3
million to less than 50,000. Full story
MIANYANG,
June 10 (Xinhua) -- China's main quake-formed lake at Tangjiashan in the
southwestern Sichuan Province shrank drastically on Tuesday as muddy water flows
into the low-lying areas.
About half of the lake's 250 million cubic meters of water
has been discharged since the drainage started on Saturday morning, the
Tangjiashan lake emergency rescue headquarters said. Full story
MIANYANG, Sichuan Province, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The water
level of the Tangjiashan "quake lake" in southwest China was continuing to rise
dangerously on Sunday despite the operation of a manmade drainage channel since
Saturday morning.
The drainage plus natural leakage of the lake was about 31
cubic meters per second, while the inflow was 3.7 times more than that at 3:15
p.m., but its impact on the lake dam is not obvious, according to an official
with the Tangjiashan quake lake relief headquarters. Full story
