A breach happened to the dam of Bayi Reservoir in Wujiaqu City,
northwest China’s Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region on January 22, the New Year’s Day according
to Chinese lunar calendar. Several companies of the Xinjiang
Production and Construction Corps were dispatched immediately to do
the rescue work. By now over 8,000 local residents who were
affected have been evacuated.
The dam leakages started in the afternoon of January 21 and the
diameter of the leakage quickly expanded from two to eight meters
with water rushing down towards the towns and villages on the lower
land.
The reservoir is located three kilometers north to the No. 102
Regiment of the Corp.. The water level is some 10-meter higher than
the regiment headquarters premises. Though some barracks nearby
were submerged, there have been no human or live stock casualty was
reported.
The Xinjiang Military Area has set up a flood relief
headquarters to put all the rescue work under its general command,
with everyone of its top officers and a senior official with the
central government’s Flood and Drought Prevention Office being on
the spot.
Yesterday, over 2,000 more soldiers of People’s Liberation Army
and armed forces in Xinjiang were sent to provide help. So far,
more than 8,000 affected people have been evacuated and soundly
resettled.
According to Li Yongxian, a division commander of the Corps, the
reservoir was built in 1957 with a designed storage capacity of 30
million cubic meters of water and an actual capacity of 28 million
cubic meters. The current water storage of the reservoir is 23
million cubic meters.
(China.org.cn January 23, 2004)