The water level at the Wangjiaba section of the Huaihe River, one of China's major rivers, continued to rise after sluice gates opened early Thursday morning to divert floodwater caused by heavy rainfall in the area.

By 6 a.m. Thursday, the water level at the Wangjiaba hydrographic station had reached 29.41 meters, up 9 mm from 29.32 meters at 1:08 a.m..

The decision to open the sluice gates, for the first time in 12 years, was made after the water level at Wangjiaba, in Funan County of Anhui Province in east China, reached 29 meters by 6 p.m. Wednesday, 2.5 meters above the warning line.

It is estimated that some 12,000 hectares of farmland would be submerged by the waters and about 15,000 local residents, who would have been directly affected by the diversion, had been evacuated by Wednesday afternoon.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2003)