China to clear away lower reaches of muddiest river
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-07 19:36

The Headquarters for Flood Controlon Yellow River, China's longest announced on Tuesday that it would start to clear away sediment in the lower reaches of the world's muddiest river on June 16.

It will be the fourth clearing stunt of the kind designed to lower the bed of the Yellow River.

The flood-prone Yellow River is the most heavily silted in the world. It was used to be called as "China's sorrows" for the heavy losses caused in floods on the river. For centuries, the Chinese have been battling hard to harness the river.

Every year, the river carries 1.6 billion tons of silt into thelower reaches, depositing 400 million tons. For about 800 kilometers in the lower reaches, the watercourse is four to six meters higher above ground level, threatening communities and livelihoods.

Severe soil erosion from the Loess Plateau where the upper reaches of the Yellow River traverses has accumulated by big amount at the lower reaches of the river, making the riverbed elevated by annual rate of 0.1 meters.

Chinese experts, who reckon that a satisfactory ratio between the water and sediment will improve dredging, have contrived to create floods to brush away silt deposited on the riverbed at the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

A spokesman with the headquarters was confident of a successfulclearing mission as enough water has been stored for the purpose this year. Up to now, eight reservoirs on the upper and middle reaches of the river have kept about 22.7 billion cu m of water altogether, 700 million cu m more than that for the same period last year.

The headquarters has worked out a detailed plan regarding silt clearing, and the three reservoirs of Wanjiazhai, Sanmenxia and Xiaolangdi, all on the middle reaches of the Yellow River, are expected to play a leading role in the silt clearing task, said the spokesman.

A total of 260 million tons of silt have been washed out into the sea via the flooding experiments since 2002 when China began to clear silt and lower the bed of the Yellow River at its lower reaches with a series of artificial flooding experiments.

Up to now, the lower reaches of the Yellow River is now capableof accommodating a water flow of 3,000 cu m per second, comparing 2,000 cu m per second before the experiments were carried out.

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