A breach happened to the dam of Bayi Reservoir in Wujiaqu City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on January 22, the New Year’s Day according to Chinese lunar calendar. Several companies of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps were dispatched immediately to do the rescue work. By now over 8,000 local residents who were affected have been evacuated.

The dam leakages started in the afternoon of January 21 and the diameter of the leakage quickly expanded from two to eight meters with water rushing down towards the towns and villages on the lower land.

The reservoir is located three kilometers north to the No. 102 Regiment of the Corp.. The water level is some 10-meter higher than the regiment headquarters premises. Though some barracks nearby were submerged, there have been no human or live stock casualty was reported.

The Xinjiang Military Area has set up a flood relief headquarters to put all the rescue work under its general command, with everyone of its top officers and a senior official with the central government’s Flood and Drought Prevention Office being on the spot.

Yesterday, over 2,000 more soldiers of People’s Liberation Army and armed forces in Xinjiang were sent to provide help. So far, more than 8,000 affected people have been evacuated and soundly resettled.

According to Li Yongxian, a division commander of the Corps, the reservoir was built in 1957 with a designed storage capacity of 30 million cubic meters of water and an actual capacity of 28 million cubic meters. The current water storage of the reservoir is 23 million cubic meters.

(China.org.cn January 23, 2004)