Thursday, July 2, 2020

Three Gorges Dam breaking the embankment? Official emergency flood warning after upstream earthquake

Reporter : Yue Wenxiao 
Editor : Yuan Mingqing
Publisher : Sound Of Hope
Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan
                                 / KUCINTA SETIA

Image : Web Screenshot


Southern China has suffered heavy rains and 26 provinces and cities have been affected. Since the construction of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Dam, rumors of dam breaks are very popular. . At 4.07 am on 2 July 2020, a 3.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Ruoergai County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan. Although the intensity was not large, the location is upstream of the Three Gorges Dam, which also caused concern. At noon today, the China Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission issued a more urgent announcement, which mentioned that the peak flow of the Three Gorges reservoir into the reservoir rose to 50,000 cubic meters per second at 2 pm, and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River will form the "No. 1 Flood in the Yangtze River 2020".

According to Xinhua News Agency's report on 2 July, under the influence of heavy rainfall, the incoming water in the main stream of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Wujiang River and the Three Gorges increased significantly. At 10 o'clock on the 2nd, the inflow of the Three Gorges Reservoir reached 50,000 cubic meters per second. According to the flood numbering regulations of major rivers in the country, the incoming water reached the flood numbering standard, and the "No. 1 flood in the Yangtze River 2020" was formed in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

The report said that in view of the severe flood situation in the Yangtze River Basin, the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission launched a level IV emergency response to the Yangtze River Flood and Drought Disaster Prevention at 11:00 on the 2nd according to the provisions of the "Preparation Plan for Flood and Drought Disasters in the Yangtze River Basin (Trial)".

According to official forecasts, there will be three heavy rainfalls in the Yangtze River Basin in the next week. It is estimated that the accumulated rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Wujiang River, Qingjiang River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be 100 mm to 150 mm. Affected by rainfall, the tributaries of the Xiangcun section, the middle and lower reaches of the Wujiang River, the Three Gorges section, the Qingjiang River, the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River, the Dongting Lake area and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will have significant rises. Super-alarm flooding may occur.

The New Beijing News also pointed out that since June, five rounds of heavy rainfall have occurred in southern China, of which about 1.5 million square kilometers of the country have accumulated rainfall of more than 200 mm, and places in mainland China the size of more than 41 areas of Taiwan have been hit by heavy rain.

Officials urgently require the water conservancy departments in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Guizhou and other places to prevent and respond to disasters.

The torrential rains and floods in southern China have raged recently, and the quality and flood control capacity of the Three Gorges Dam have been questioned. Whether the Three Gorges Dam will "break the dam" has become a hot topic in recent social media discussions.

Before the end of last month, the Yangtze River Basin had not yet entered the main flood season. The central leadership ordered the Three Gorges Dam to discharge floods in order to ensure that the dam would not break. Yichang, located in the lower reaches of Chongqing, had almost no dead ends on 27 June and was completely flooded. Moreover, it was not until 28 June that Xi Jinping, the top leader of the Communist Party of China, expressed his position on the disaster for the first time, acknowledging that the problem was severe, and that his performance made people feel "anxious and windy in the middle of Slow Lang".

According to information from the China Seismic Network, a magnitude 3.2 earthquake occurred in Ruoergai County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan (at 34.10° north latitude and 102.68° east longitude) at 4:07 in the morning on July 2, with a depth of only 8 kilometers. In fact, China has issued rainstorm warnings for 31 consecutive days, and Aba Prefecture issued an orange flood warning on the 23rd of last month, showing that the impact of the rainstorm on the local area is not small. In addition, the Three Gorges Dam has released floods in the past few days, causing huge downstream cities. pressure.

At present, in addition to flooding the entire city of Yichang, the ancient city of Fenghuang has also been submerged, and the floods have all the way to the mouth of the Qiantang River. Local level IV alarms have been raised.

In response to the disaster in the Yangtze River Basin and the Three Gorges Dam questioned by the dam breach, Huang Xiaokun, who was suspected to be a doctoral tutor of the Chinese Academy of Building Sciences, issued a warning in WeChat circle of friends to run below Yichang and say the last time. Some netizens even made "Maps of Flooded Place Names in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River" to remind themselves to save themselves.

A Chinese earthquake expert, "Feng Tian Lao Wang", also predicted at the end of last month that China's flooding will be the worst on July 2 and that there may be a catastrophe on this day, and even persuaded residents of the Yangtze River Basin to take refuge. However, it didn't take long for this prediction to say that an earthquake occurred upstream of the Three Gorges Dam. Although the earthquake intensity was not large, it also made people worry about whether it would cause the mountain to slide.

On 30 June, some netizens revealed via Twitter that the Coral Bay Community, near the Caiyuanba Yangtze River Bridge in Chongqing City, received a notice from the Hongfan Property Center on 25 June, requesting that they prepare for flood control below the fourth floor. This news also caused panic.


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