China's highest governing body, the State Council, has approved a program to tackle Yellow River problems in the near future.

According to the State Council, localities along the river valley and central government departments concerned should make concerted efforts to basically establish a flood prevention and silt reduction system in 10 years.

Flood control and silt reduction on the lower reaches of the Yellow River should be the focus in the near future.

Other major objectives of the 10-year program include improving the unified management and allocation of water resources, bringing the overall discharge of pollutants under control, strengthening water and soil conservation, and basically keeping the ecological environment along the valley from worsening.

Due to worsening siltation, the Yellow River has become an "aerial" river in some places where its banks tower above nearby towns. This has caused many major mishaps in the past.

Earlier this month, Chinese scientists and engineers carried out an experiment to flush Yellow River silt down to the sea using artificial flood waves.

The 5,464-km-long (3,395 miles) Yellow River, the second largest in China, runs through 11 province-level administrative zones before emptying into the Bohai Sea in Shandong Province, east China.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2002)