Quake lake 'under control'

2008-05-31 12:00

Beichuan - China's frantic work to prevent a "quake lake" from bursting its banks was nearly finished, an official said on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people waited anxiously downstream.

The first batches of soldiers who have been working for 10 days round-the-clock to drain the lake have started leaving, said Han Guijun, a top party official in Beichuan county, where the quake lake is situated.

"Right now, I believe the lake problem is under control, we do not have any fears that there will an uncontrollable flood," he said.

"It is not an evacuation - the soldiers are leaving because the task is finished."

The government has warned that more than a million people would be affected if the Tangjiashan lake in southwest Sichuan province overflowed, sending cascades of debris-filled water into lower-lying areas.

More than 197 000 people living downstream from the lake had been evacuated by Saturday morning as a precaution, Xinhua news agency said.

Local residents said that they had been ordered to move at least 30m above the level of a river feeding into the lake.

The lake was created when landslides triggered by the massive March 12 earthquake created a dam across the river.

Soldiers have been working non-stop to dig a channel to drain the lake, which contains enough water to fill over 50 000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The channel was finished on Saturday, Han said.

"In the next three days, we will be able to get the water flowing," he said.

At least 20 helicopters were going to be sent to the site to fly 350 soldiers out on Saturday, China news service said.

Dealing with the "quake lake" has become one of the key challenges in the aftermath of the earthquake that left nearly 88 000 people dead or missing and displaced 15 million others.

- AFP