The water level of the huge Three Gorges Reservoir will reach its
target depth of 135 meters Tuesday night, five days ahead of
schedule.
Sources with the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation said
the filling of the reservoir is progressing well despite the
appearance of some debris.
Sailing boats have been heavily affected by the debris, such as
rubbish and tree branches floating in the reservoir.
"Their speed has been greatly slowed down by the obstacles and
sometimes, the safety of the boats and ships are threatened," an
official surnamed Cao told China Daily.
The debris appeared after a large area of mountains, towns and land
was covered by the huge reservoir.
The official said his corporation is preparing a large-scale
clear-up of rubbish in the passage.
About 1.3 million rural and urban residents in 12 counties in the
Chongqing
Municipality and Hubei
Province have made way for the gigantic project which costs a
total of 180 billion yuan (US$21.6 billion).
Dozens of natural and cultural heritage sites and tourist
attractions have been submerged.
Despite the current filling, the water quality has been unaffected
by the flooding of the reservoir, and acidity and alkalinity showed
little difference from records of the past decades, said local
authorities tasked with monitoring the quality of Yangtze River
water.
Zhang Xiaoping, director of water quality monitoring for the
Yangtze River valley, said that a two-month-long study showed that
by Sunday afternoon, the quality of water in the 150-kilometre area
between the Three Gorges dam and Wushan Mountain was as good as
before.
Meanwhile, soil erosion is becoming less threatening in the
reservoir area, where the coverage of suffering from soil erosion
is decreasing at an annual rate of one percent, according to a
remote sensing survey.
The survey has shown the area of erosion at the reservoir area has
decreased from 38,800 square kilometers in the mid-1980s to 30,000
square kilometers.
It
indicated that serious soil erosion had been effectively curbed in
the region, said Hu Jiajun, director of the Yangtze River Soil and
Water Conservation Bureau.
"But we need to keep alert as the reservoir is growing," said
Hu.
The Three Gorges reservoir area covers 21 counties and cities in
Central China's Hubei Province and Chongqing Municipality with a
total area of 58,000 square kilometers. Soil erosion is serious in
the region because of the hilly landscape, exposed mantle rock and
heavy rainfall.
As
the ecological environment has a direct impact on the normal
operation of the reservoir, the Chinese Government has spent 500
million yuan (US$60 million) in special funds to curb soil erosion
in the region since the 1980s.
The central and local authorities have also injected large amount
of money into creating a tree belt and converting poor farmland
into forest since late 1990s.
As
a result, the area covered by forest around the reservoir area
expanded by 2.2 million hectares in the past two decades, according
to Hu.
The central government will allocate another two billion yuan
(US$240 million) in the coming years to improve eroded lands, Hu
said.
(China Daily June 10, 2003)