"The Yellow River has a great bearing on the country and the responsibility of flood prevention here is as heavy as Mount Tai," said Zhu.

Acknowledging that the Yellow River flood prevention work has entered a critical stage, Premier Zhu urged local Party and government leaders of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces in northwest China to further implement their responsibility system and get everything ready to deal with any possible floods, so as to guarantee the safety of dams and embankments in their areas as well as the safety of local people's lives and property.

The five-day tour, made between July 15 and 19, took Premier Zhu from Lanzhou, provincial capital of Gansu and a major city in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, to Yan'an city in the northern part of Shaanxi province and several other major cities downstream in central Henan province and east China's Shandong province and finally to Dongying city in Shandong, where China's second longest river joins the Bohai Bay.

On the afternoon of July 17, Premier Zhu presided over a working meeting in Zhengzhou, capital city of central China's Henan Province, on flood prevention work at the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The meeting was attended by provincial leaders of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong.

Summing up the flood prevention and control work along the Yellow River, he said that all-out efforts should made to firmly grasp "three major links", namely, to step up water conservation and soil erosion control work, to further reinforce the construction of flood-control projects, and to rationally utilize and strictly protect the river's water resources.

Wen Jiabao, vice-premier and also head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, accompanied Premier Zhu during the entire tour and at the meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2002)