Yangtze flood alert as Tibetan glaciers melt
Pastor Dale Morgan
Yangtze flood alert as Tibetan glaciers melt*
BEIJING, May 24 (AFP) May 24, 2007
Melting Tibetan glaciers could cause the worst flooding on the Yangtze
since 1998, when more than 3,000 people were killed as China's longest
river overflowed, state media said Thursday.
"Meteorological and hydrological features in the Yangtze River valley
this year are similar to those in 1998," said Cai Qihua, deputy chief of
the Yangtze River Flood Control Headquarters, according to the China Daily.
"We should be vigilant for a comparatively big flood on the Yangtze,"
she was quoted as saying.
Vast amounts of snow have melted on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, where the
Yangtze originates, the paper said, attributing the unusually warm
winter to El Nino, the abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the
eastern Pacific.
Some Chinese officials have also previously linked this year's high
winter temperatures to man-made global warming.
The United Nations' top panel on climate change warned in a landmark
report in April that the Himalayan glaciers were under grave threat from
global warming.
The China Meteorological Administration has forecast heavy rainfall and
typhoons this summer, mainly in the southern part of the country,
especially affecting the lower reaches of the Yangtze, the China Daily said.
Heavy floods could be potentially disastrous as populous cities such as
Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing are situated along the river, according to
the paper.
A rising Yangtze could also put the enormous dam across the river in the
Three Gorges area to the test, the paper quoted Cai as saying.
Altogether 28,000 people still live in areas near the dam's reservoir
that could be flooded if the water storage level hits the maximum of 175
metres (580 feet), Cai said, urging local governments to evacuate them
in time.
State media earlier this month warned that China this year faced its
greatest threat in a decade from typhoons, floods, droughts and other
extreme weather caused by climate change.