The dam area of the mammoth Three Gorges water control project in the middle reach of the Yangtze River witnessed a high water level over the last few days, as the Yangtze's Sichuan section, upstream of the dam, experienced continuous heavy rainfall.

The marine authorities for the Yangtze River are taking measures to ensure safe sailing in the dam area.

According to the local marine department in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, from Aug. 13 to 23, water flow into the Three Gorges dam remained at around 40,000 cubic meters per second. This is the first continuous high water level at the dam since the huge water control project started to store water.

The heavy rainfall put a large amount of floating objects in the river section at the dam area, which sometimes twined the propellers of the passing-by vessels, the local marine department said. The rainstorms also led to low visibility at fairways, the department added.

To ensure navigation safety amid the high water level at the Three Gorges dam area, related branches of the Yangtze marine authorities have forbidden small boats to sail downward with the main stream, demanding they sail at the right side of the course. Local marine authorities are also not allowing ships to occupy the fairways of others and are requiring them to go back to their own fairways after they occupy the major course to evade floating objects.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2005)