Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that China can not afford to make mistakes in its ongoing efforts to combat floods in the Yangtze River area, because of the potential risk of disaster.

In his written instructions released on Wednesday, Wen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, urged all local leaders to give top priority to the issue.

He called for massive mobilizing of soldiers and civilians to strengthen their defense of the dikes and embankments along the country's largest river and at Dongting Lake where water levels are continuing to rise.

Cities, major transport facilities and people's lives must be secured, he said.

According to sources with the flood control headquarters, local officials in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces have been told to study and implement Wen's instruction.

Currently, more than 870,000 people including 11,000 Army soldiers and Armed Police officers are defending the dikes and embankments along the river. So far, no major accidents have been reported.

Fighting Flood Emergency Task

China is again forced to face its worst natural disaster as sections along middle and lower reaches of its longest waterway - the Yangtze River - are threatened by this year's severest flood.

On Wednesday, an official flood emergency was declared in the central province of Hunan, which bears the brunt of surging water levels from its two big rivers, the Zishui and Xiangjiang, as well as Dongting Lake.

Water has surged past warning signs along more than 1,800 kilometers (1,118.5 miles) of dykes at the lake.

Although experts have ruled out a massive outbreak of floods like the disaster of 1998 in the Yangtze River valley, Hunan officials said water levels could match those experienced at the time.

The fact that the flood five years ago was the biggest in a hundred years and caused heavy damages and economic losses is still fresh in people's minds.

Abnormal weather conditions, combined with serious ecological and environmental hurdles that greatly reduced the ability of rivers and lakes to regulate water, were blamed for the flooding.

Since then, the country's ability to fight flooding has been enhanced as the central government and flood-prone areas have invested heavily in projects to control water surges and the environment.

Nonetheless, alarm bells started ringing earlier this week along sections of the Yangtze River. The same past problems are suspected of being the culprit.

For one thing, it is still too early to hope that various flood-control projects will be successful.

Not to mention that the curbing and restoration of ecological degradation in the Yangtze River valley may take generations.

Before humans are able to control flooding, prevention work and social mobilization during the wet season seems to be the only real way to limit the damage.

( August 23, 2002)