By Alice Yan of SCMP
Heavy rain is expected across China’s southwest, northwest and northeast in the next three days, raising flood risks and pressure on dams, weather forecasters have warned.
The Ministry of Water Resources urged local authorities to be on alert, particularly along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Yellow, Hai, Songhua and Liao rivers.
The National Meteorological Centre said Sichuan province in the country’s southwest would be particularly hard hit, with up to 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain forecast for Monday.
Between 30-50mm of rain is expected to fall per hour in the provinces of Yunnan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, rising to over 70mm an hour in some scattered areas.
Water Resources Minister E Jingping said the Three Gorges Dam and others in the upper reaches of the Yangtze should release water “precisely” to prevent floods, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Upstream dams should take on as much water as possible to ease pressure on the Three Gorges, he said.The lower reaches of the Yangtze are still recovering from heavy flooding last month that affected a large part of southeastern China.
In all, 219 people have died or are missing in this year’s floods, and more than 63 million residents have been affected. Read more from scmp
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