China’s Three Gorges Dam on flood alert as rain batters megacity Chongqing – Technologist

Six people have died from the heavy rains in Chongqing’s Dianjiang county, with four of them killed by “geological disasters” that followed the rain and two who drowned as of Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The rainfall in Dianjiang reached a record high for single-day precipitation, affecting more than 40,000 people, damaging nearly 1,800 hectares (4,448 acres) of crops, and causing direct economic losses of around 82 million yuan (US$11.3 million), CCTV said.

The Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in Chongqing raised the flood emergency response to Level 3 for 14 districts and counties and the geological disaster alert to Level 3 for nine areas on Thursday. The alerts are part of a four-tier system in which Level 1 is the most severe.

Rainfall is categorised into three levels in China, with torrential rain defined as 50-99.9mm, a downpour defined as 100-249.9mm, and rainfall of 250mm or more classified as a heavy downpour.

Due to the rain, a provincial highway collapsed in Chongqing’s Kaizhou district, disrupting traffic. Chongqing Railway Station was also affected, with 26 train trips suspended on Thursday, according to CCTV.

China faces further challenges along the Yangtze River basin as the water level of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir has reached 161.1 metres (528.5 feet), the highest for any July on record, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The Changjiang Water Resource Commission, a department that specialises in Yangtze River flood prevention and water pollution, stated that there would be heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the river in the next 10 days, and a new round of floods would flow into the Three Gorges Dam reservoir 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 to enter the reservoir on Friday, and two other significant water surges are expected in mid-July.

The commission decided to increase the reservoir’s outflow on Thursday afternoon, according to CCTV.

The commission said that future flood conditions were “highly uncertain”, and after floodwater increased in the reservoir, water levels in the Yangtze’s lower reaches would rise.

The Ministry of Water Resources announced on Thursday that the Yangtze was experiencing its second serious flood of 2024.

The river’s first serious flood of the year was announced on June 28, and by Tuesday morning the floodwater had flowed into the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua reported.

A wide area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were affected by the earlier flood, and provinces including Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui were swamped by rainstorms.