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No flood danger at China quake-lake
2008-06-07
A dam blocking a swollen "quake lake", which could threaten the lives of 1.3 million people in southwest China, is in no danger of imminent collapse, state media said Saturday, as workers began to drain the water. The Tangjiashan quake lake, which had built up after landslides blocked a river in the May 12 earthquake, had reached critical levels by Friday due to heavy rain. Earlier Saturday, hundreds of police and soldiers opened a sluice channel to drain water from the lake and then began excavating another, state media said. "The dam is in no danger of collapse in the foreseeable period," Xinhua news agency quoted Fan Xiaoguang, deputy commander of the Chengdu Military Area Command, as saying. The agency also said heavy rainfall, which could heighten the risk of flooding, was unlikely over the next 10 days. The danger of a serious aftershock that could collapse the dam was remote, too, it said. However, the lake's water levels continued to climb slightly after workers opened the channel, said Rao Xiping, head of the government hydrometeorological station in Beichuan -- one of the areas worst-hit by the quake. Rao said the outgoing water flow needed to increase by more than double in order to satisfactorily drain the lake. "But the dam is safe now," Rao said, according to Xinhua. The agency had earlier said water levels had risen by nearly 10 centimetres (six inches) from early morning to mid-afternoon on Saturday, adding around 10 million cubic metres of water volume to the lake. Soldiers and police dug the channel to stop the lake from bursting its banks and emptying 220 million cubic metres (700 million cubic feet) of water downstream. The lake has become one of the most pressing issues in the aftermath of the quake that struck mountainous Sichuan province, killing 69,134, according to the latest toll, and leaving millions homeless. The 8.0-magnitude quake triggered massive landslides that blocked rivers and created more than 30 unstable "quake lakes," with the Tangjiashan one on the Jianjiang river being considered the most dangerous. Up to 1.3 million people were deemed to be in danger if the vast piles of rock and debris that have blocked the river for the past month burst open, officials had warned. More than 250,000 people have been evacuated from the downstream area, but many others would have to be moved if the dam collapsed due to the pressure of the water, Xinhua said. At least 600 soldiers and police dug the channel over the past week, and 100 more were airlifted to the dam on Friday to step up preparations, Xinhua said. They were widening the flood channel on Saturday as water began to flow through it. Using dynamite, military engineers blasted a massive bolder that was impeding water flow in the channel and then began carving out a second channel using 30 bulldozers and excavators, Xinhua said. Concern about flooding spread to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which said the country's longest oil pipeline could be at risk if the dam burst. The Lanzhou-Chengdu-Chongqing pipeline is 60 kilometres (38 miles) downstream from the Tangjiashan quake lake, CNPC said in a statement on its website. Oil supplies to the disaster-hit zone and neighbouring provinces risk being cut off if the pipeline is damaged and cannot be repaired within three days, CNPC added. Meanwhile, anger grew in the region over the poor construction of schools that collapsed during the quake, killing many children. Parents have held unprecedented protests over the issue, blaming official corruption for the shoddily-built schools.
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