All the barrier lakes (or quake lakes) formed after the massive May 12
earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province are "under control" but the
situation is still grim, said Vice Minister of Water Resources E Jingping
yesterday.
Heavy rains forecast for the area over the next three days are a major
threat, as the additional water build-up in the lakes could cause the landslide
barriers that formed them to burst, flooding nearby areas, E told a news
conference.
The 8.0-magnitude earthquake, aftershocks and landslides created 35 such
lakes, with 34 in Sichuan, posing a new danger to more than 700,000 of the
people who survived the deadly quake, thevice minister said.
E admitted that these lakes posed a challenge for the government's efforts to
prevent secondary disasters in the quake regions.
The biggest concern is the Tangjiashan lake, the largest of the 34 quake
lakes in Sichuan, whose water level rose by nearly 2 meters Saturday to 723
meters, only 29 meters below the lowest part of the barrier.
About 1,600 armed police officers and People's Liberation Army soldiers were
hiking on Sunday toward the Tangjiashan lake, hoping to blast away its landslide
barrier before it bursts and causes a flood.
Earlier attempts to send military helicopters on the same mission were
hampered by adverse weather and low visibility at the lake.
The ministry has drawn up evacuation plans for communities downstream of the
19 quake lakes at high risk of bursting, E said. He did not provide an estimate
of the people who might have to move.
The massive earthquake also left 69 reservoirs in danger of collapse in
Sichuan. Another 310 reservoirs were in "highly dangerous" situations and more
than 1,400 posed a moderate risk, according to E.
Steps have been taken to tackle the problem, E said, such as completely
draining the 69 collapse-prone reservoirs, lowering water levels at 826 others
and putting all the damaged reservoirs under 24-hour observation.
The ministry wants to fix the reservoirs in the "highly dangerous" and more
risky categories before July, when the rainy season is expected to start in the
quake regions, he said.
Priority has been given to the Zipingpu dam, which is only 17 kilometers from
the quake epicenter of Wenchuan County and would threaten 11 million lives on
the downstream Chengdu Plain if it collapsed, E said. However, he said, the dam
was structurally stable and safe despite some minor damage.
Meanwhile, 803 hydropower stations were damaged in the quake nationwide,
including 481 in Sichuan.