The water level has kept on rising after the long-awaited drainage of China's Tangjiashan "quake lake" started on Saturday morning, and its water flowed into a manmade sluice channel.
For Rao Xiping, head of the Beichuan hydrometeorological station, the flow volume has yet to reach the ideal status of 100 plus cubic meters per second, and only 40 cubic meters of water flow per second in the sluice channel.
He said that sluggish water flow is the reason for the slightly rising water level.
"But the dam is safe now," said Rao, adding that no more spots of overflowing have emerged and he didn't think the dam would either collapse or cave-in.
A Xinhua reporter at the commanding center saw water passing the sluice channel via satellite monitor. The flow was rapid, steady and gradually increasing in volume.
The quake lake was enlarged by 13.5 million cubic meters, and has reached 229.5 million in total, according to experts at the commanding center.
The experts also said no strong rainfall is expected until June16, which will be good for the quake relief work. The possibility of a strong aftershock measuring 6.0 or above on the Richter scale is also slim, they said.
Soldiers of the armed police force are still working at the exit of the sluice channel to expand the channel and make it steep so that the flow could be speeded up.
The overflow had been expected to occur Friday night when water level reached the lowest point of the blockage, but it was delayed by a 0.6-meter-high temporary dam erected on Friday afternoon to protect workers dredging the sluice channel.
The swollen lake was formed by a massive landslide following the May 12 earthquake that jolted the country's southwest. It is posing a major threat to 1.3 million people downstream.
Some 600 armed police and soldiers worked for six days and nights to dig a 475-meter channel to divert water from the lake.
More than 250,000 people in low-lying areas in Mianyang have been relocated under a plan based on the assumption that a third of the lake volume breached its banks.
Two other plans require the relocation of 1.2 million people ifhalf the lake volume is released or 1.3 million if the barrier fully opened.
The lake is also posing a threat to the Fujiang river bridge on the Baoji-Chengdu Railway, a critical part of the railway network in west China.
Liu Yongzhan, a pontoon bridge army colonel, told Xinhua that his men are ready to protect the bridge by intercepting, bombarding and salvaging large floaters that may be washed down by the flooding.
The swollen quake lake has put China's longest oil pipeline at risk. The pipeline, winding from Lanzhou via Chengdu to Chongqing, was 60 kilometers downstream from the lake.
Liu Xiaozhong, director in charge of the pipeline protection work, said told Xinhua that the pipeline will not be disrupted according to the work plan on the quake lake.
More than 100 Petro China staff and 20 pieces of large equipment were assembled for protecting the pipeline.
With a capacity of transferring six million tons of oil each year, the pipeline provides 70 percent of product oil to Sichuan and neighboring Chongqing Municipality.
If the line was cut, refined oil in storage could only supply Sichuan for three days, whereas repair work would take 30 days.
Source: Xinhua
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