Floods move to China’s drought-hit farmland as Dongting Lake wall repair holds

Heavy rains continue trail of destruction into Henan and Shandong provinces after dyke breach floods town in Hunan

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Repair teams worked through the weekend to seal the dyke breach at China’s second-largest freshwater lake. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:00pm, 9 Jul 2024

Emergency forces sealed the main dyke breach at China’s second-largest freshwater lake on Monday night, with a secondary flood defence line being put to the test, according to local authorities.

Dongting Lake, in the central province of Hunan, burst its embankment on Friday, flooding more than 47 sq km (18 square miles) including the town of Tuanzhou where at least 7,000 residents were evacuated, with no reported casualties.

By Saturday, the breach had widened to 226 metres (741ft). Work to seal the dyke was progressing at an average rate of 4 metres per hour by midnight on Sunday, according to mainland media reports.

Hunan vice-governor Zhang Yingchun said on Sunday that an emergency barrier in the embankment had failed on Friday afternoon, less than two hours after it was set up to contain a water release caused by an erosion-related incident.

To seal the breach, mechanised operations built up the dyke from both sides, while rocks and other materials were dumped into the water from barges without interruption throughout the repairs, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

At a press conference on Monday, Zhang said nearly 500 personnel were involved in the repairs, along with more than 3,000 dump trucks and 85 vessels of all types.