China to flood 75 villages to ease swollen river

BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) China was evacuating 150,000 people today from villages in eastern China that may have to be deliberately flooded to combat torrential rains which have led to the deaths of more than 100 people nationwide.

Flood waters will be diverted into the Mengwa flood reserve near Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui if and when the level of the swollen Huai River exceeds 29.3 metres, expected today afternoon, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.

Anhui provincial government has ordered authorities in the Mengwa area, with its 75 villages, to evacuate villagers, the headquarters said on its Web site (sfdh.chinawater.com.cn).

''Some 131 areas of higher ground to shelter the evacuated villagers will become isolated islands once the floodgates are opened,'' the People's Daily said.

The water release has to be carried out when the water level at the Wangjiaba embankment hits 29.3 metres, and that level had already reached 29.22 metres by early today, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Eleven people have been killed in floods in Anhui so far and over 430,000 residents were stranded, a quarter of them facing drinking water shortages, Xinhua said.

The Mengwa area, in an impoverished wheat-growing part of north Anhui, has been submerged by the notorious Huai River flood waters more than 10 times since it was set up in 1953, state media said.

The 180-sq-km (70-sq-mile) area suffered 1 billion yuan (132 million dollars) of direct economic losses when flood water was diverted from the Huai River in July 2003, Xinhua said.

The heavy rain has caused floods and landslides which have killed at least 101 people in at least six provinces since late June, the People's Daily said. At least 26 people were missing.

More rain is forecast for the next three days along the Huai River, flowing through the central province of Henan and the eastern province of Anhui and Jiangsu.

A total of 545 people were killed by natural disasters in China in the first half of the year, according to a report released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs yesterday.

Another 78 people went missing as a result of natural disasters, including floods, landslides, mudflows, gales, snowstorms and earthquakes.

The typhoon season is under way in the South China Sea and a tropical storm was gathering strength east of the Philippines today, headed for the China coast.

REUTERS AGL DS1132