China plans to wash away silt building up in the lower reaches of the Yellow River - Chinese people's "mother river" - by discharging water from a major reservoir on the river's middle reaches.

The largest project yet to clear silt deposits from the bed in the lower reaches of China's second longest river is due to begin on July 4 and will last for 10 days, Monday's Beijing Morning Post reported.

It quoted Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee sources as saying that the Xiaolangdi Hydro-electric Project on the mainstream of the Yellow River would adjust its runoff and speed of currents making them sufficiently strong to wash away silt deposits from an 800-km section between the Xiaolangdi project and the estuary.

By finding a way to control silt deposits in the lower reaches of the river, China aimed to make the river safer and guarantee lives and property of people living in the river valley, the papersaid.

Solving flooding caused by silt deposited on the river bed has long been a headache for China. Due to rising silt levels, the river bed in the lower reaches is growing higher and higher, increasing the risk of flooding.

The 5,464-km-long river runs through nine Chinese provinces and two autonomous regions, emptying into the Bohai Sea, in Shandong Province in east China.

( July 2, 2002)