July 8, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7,1424

BEIJING, July 7: About 380,000 people have been evacuated in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui as two swollen rivers continue to pose a major flood threat, state media and officials said on Monday.

More than half of the evacuees left areas near the Huaihe river, where workers blasted a dike early Monday to allow water from Jingshan lake to spill onto farmland and reduce the risk of major flooding in Anhui’s Bengbu city.

The blasting of the dike followed a similar emergency flood relief operation at another lake on the Huaihe on Sunday.

An extra 100,000 soldiers and workers joined flood fighting teams along the Huaihe on Sunday, taking the total to 870,000, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The government has issued a storm warning this week for the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, which also passes through Anhui, and areas to the south of the river.

The estimated cost of flood damage in the province has already reached 4.8 billion yuan (578 million dollars), state media said.

Rainstorms have caused floods and landslides that have killed at least 200 people nationwide so far this summer. At least eight provinces in central, southern and eastern China are affected.

The water level in the Huaihe reached a record 26.22 metres on Sunday morning at the Lutaizi monitoring station, exceeding the previous high of 26 metres recorded in 1991.

The Yangtze rose past its flood-warning level in mid-May, and officials have warned of serious flood risk along the middle and lower reaches of the river.

Meteorologists have predicted high rainfall this summer in most areas that drain into the river’s upper reaches, mainly due to the influence of El Nino.

More than 1,000 people died in summer floods last year, the worst year since some 4,000 died in 1998.

The government hopes the huge reservoir in the Yangtze’s scenic Three Gorges will provide a long-term solution to the annual flooding.—dpa