Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake
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Picture taken at 9 a.m. on June 10, 2008 from a military helicopter shows the drainage of the Tangjiashan quake lake in southewest China's Sichuan Province. Drainage of the quake lake through a manmade spillway speeded up to 1,760 cubic meters per second at 9:30 am on Tuesday, whereas water flow in the lower reaches of the lake, in Beichuan County, reached 2,240 cubic meters per second. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
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MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior official said here on Tuesday that a "decisive victory" has been achieved in the drainage of China's main quake lake Tangjiashan.
Liu Qibao, Communist Party chief of the southwestern Sichuan Province, made the remarks after about half of the quake's water have been discharged and the number of people under threat has dropped from 1.3 million to less than 50,000.
A man-made sluice channel on the lake's dam was scoured to between 720 and 721 meters above the sea level at 5 p.m., which means the influx and outflow of the lake reached a balance, according to the Tangjiashan Lake emergency rescue headquarters.
The lake's dam was also more secure with the sluice channel being lowered, the headquarters said.
The man-made spillway started to drain from the lake on Saturday morning and military engineers used recoilless guns, bazookas and dynamites on Sunday and Monday to blast boulders and other obstructions in the channel and speed up the outflow.
As a result of two massive blasts on Monday evening which broke through the "bottleneck" in the spillway, the water outflow speeded up drastically on Tuesday compared with 80 cubic meters on Monday night.
The Tangjiashan quake lake, formed after quake-triggered landslides from the Tangjiashan Mountain, blocked the Tongkou River running through Beichuan County, one of the worst-hit areas in the May 12 quake.
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Picture taken at 9 a.m. of June 10, 2008 from a military helicopter shows the water gushed out of the Tangjiashan quake lake in southewest China's Sichuan Province. Drainage of the quake lake through a manmade spillway speeded up to 1,760 cubic meters per second at 9:30 am on Tuesday, whereas water flow in the lower reaches of the lake, in Beichuan County, reached 2,240 cubic meters per second. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
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Picture taken on June 10, 2008 from a military helicopter shows flood water flowing past Beichuan County in southewest China's Sichuan Province. Drainage of the Tangjiashan quake lake through a manmade spillway speeded up to 1,760 cubic meters per second at 9:30 am on Tuesday, whereas water flow in the lower reaches of the lake, in Beichuan County, reached 2,240 cubic meters per second. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
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China's main quake lake shrinks as drainage speeds up
MIANYANG, June 10 (Xinhua) -- China's main quake-formed lake at Tangjiashan in the southwestern Sichuan Province shrank drastically on Tuesday as muddy water flows into the low-lying areas.
About half of the lake's 250 million cubic meters of water has been discharged since the drainage started on Saturday morning, the Tangjiashan lake emergency rescue headquarters said. Full story
Flood from main quake lake passes Mianyang City safely
MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The crest of the flood from China's main Tangjiashan "quake lake" passed safely by downstream Mianyang City, Xinhua reporters witnessed on Tuesday afternoon.
There were between 300,000 and 400,000 people left in the city when the crest passed, said Tan Li, the city's Communist Party chief and also its Quake Control and Relief Headquarters head. Full story
Alert remains as China's main quake lake continues to swell
MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China remained on alert Monday as the water level of the Tangjiashan quake-formed lake in the southwestern Sichuan Province continued to rise after two days of drainage.
The water level in the lake reached 742.58 meters above sea level as of 8 p.m. Monday, a rise of 1.3 meters in 24 hours, and 2.59 meters higher than the manmade sluice that began operation on Saturday morning. Full story
Strong aftershock felt on dam of China's main quake lake
MIANYANG, Sichuan, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A strong aftershock was felt on the dam of the Tangjiashan "quake lake" at around 11:04 a.m. Monday, a Xinhua reporter at the site said.
The tremor sent rocks rolling down the surrounding mountains and splashing into the quake-formed Tangjiashan Lake in Mianyang City, one of the hardest-hit areas in the May 12 earthquake. Full story
Chinese premier urges no relaxation in epidemic prevention in quake areas
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday said the medical treatment and epidemic prevention tasks in the quake regions were still tough and no relaxation would be allowed.
Presiding over a quake relief meeting here, Wen urged bolstering the treatment of the injured to minimize fatalities and disability. Full story