China’s Three Gorges Dam on flood alert as rain batters megacity Chongqing

Rainstorms kill six people, collapse highway and disrupt rail travel in southwest municipality while floods hit Yangtze River

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Residents of Chongqing’s Dianjiang county are evacuated from a flooded area on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:09pm, 12 Jul 2024Updated: 5:39pm, 12 Jul 2024

Devastating rains have struck Chongqing municipality in southwest China with the Three Gorges Dam on high alert for a new round of flooding.

Six people deaths had been recorded as a result of heavy rainfall in Chongqing’s Dianjiang county as of Thursday. State broadcaster CCTV said four people had been killed by “geological disasters” and the other two had drowned.

The rainfall in Dianjiang reached a record single-day high of 269.2mm (10.6 inches), affecting more than 40,000 people.

CCTV said it had damaged nearly 1,800 hectares (4,448 acres) of crops, and caused direct economic losses of around 82 million yuan (US$11.3 million).

On Thursday the Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in Chongqing raised the flood emergency response to Level 3 for 14 districts and counties and the geological disaster alert to Level 3 for nine areas. The alerts are part of a four-tier system in which Level 1 is the most severe.

“As flood preparedness and response enter a critical period, we should strengthen warnings and monitoring, and timely evacuate people in areas at risk of geological disasters. It’s better to be extra careful to prevent any potential losses,” Chongqing’s mayor Hu Henghua said on Thursday.