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Flood alert for Three Gorges Dam in China: Rain hits megacity Chongqing

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Devastating rains Chongqing community in southwest China, while the Three Gorges Dam, one of the largest dams in the world, is on high alert for a new round of flooding.

Six people have died in heavy rains in Chongqing’s Dianjiang county, four of them dying from “geological disasters” following the rains and two drowning by Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The rains in Dianjiang hit the highest daily rainfall record and affected more than 40,000 people, destroyed nearly 1,800 hectares of farmland and caused direct economic damage of about 82 million yuan ($11.3 million), CCTV reported.

The Chongqing Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Thursday raised flood emergency measures for 14 districts and counties to Level 3 and geological disaster warnings for nine areas to Level 3. The warnings are part of a four-tier system, with Level 1 being the most severe.

“When the flood Readiness and response “When the situation enters a critical phase, we must strengthen warnings and monitoring and evacuate people in areas at risk of geological disasters in a timely manner. It is better to be extra cautious to prevent possible casualties,” Chongqing Mayor Hu Henghua said on Thursday.
Four counties in Chongqing experienced heavy rainwith the heaviest rainfall exceeding 250 mm (9.8 inches), while 14 other counties and districts recorded rainfall ranging from torrential rain to downpours on Thursday, the Chongqing Hydrological Monitoring Station said.

In China, precipitation is divided into three categories: 50–99.9 mm is considered torrential rain, 100–249.9 mm is considered torrential rain, and 250 mm or more is considered to be heavy rain.

Due to the rain, a provincial highway in Chongqing’s Kaizhou district collapsed, causing traffic disruptions. Chongqing railway station was also affected. According to CCTV, 26 train services were suspended on Thursday.

The death toll from heavy rains in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing has risen to six, according to local authorities. Photo: Xinhua
The inland megacity of Chongqing lies on the upper reaches of the yangtze river.

China faces further challenges along the Yangtze River Basin as water levels at the Three Gorges Dam have reached 161.1 metres (528.5 feet), the highest ever recorded in a July, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The Changjiang Water Resource Commission, an agency specializing in flood control and water pollution control on the Yangtze River, said heavy rainfall will occur in the upper reaches of the river over the next 10 days and a new wave of flood water will flow into the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam around July 16.

A flood with a peak flow of 45,000 cubic metres per second (1.59 million cubic feet per second) is expected into the reservoir on Friday, and two more significant floods are expected in mid-July.

According to CCTV, the commission decided on Thursday afternoon to increase the discharge of the reservoir.

The commission stated that future flood conditions were “highly uncertain” and that as flood levels in the reservoir increased, water levels in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River would also rise.

The Ministry of Water Resources announced on Thursday that the Yangtze River will experience severe flooding for the second time in 2024.

The river’s first major flooding this year was reported on June 28, and by Tuesday morning the floodwaters had already flowed into the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Large areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were affected by the earlier flooding, and provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui were inundated by rainstorms.

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