The Linhuaigang Flood Control Project, the first water control project on China's third longest river, the Huaihe River, was completed on Monday after five years of construction.

 

The project is expected to help control flooding of the Huaihe River, one of the most flood-prone rivers in China, according to the Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources.

 

Located on the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, the project consists of a 78-kilometer-long dam, a reservoir with an 8.56 billion cubic meters storage capacity, irrigation channels and sluices.

 

The project, which has cost 2.27 billion yuan (about US$283 million), is designed to prevent flooding of over 666,000 hectares of farmland as well as protect 6 million local residents.

 

It is also one of the 19 key projects in the Huaihe River management blueprint and has been listed as a major project in the national economic and social development plan.

 

The 1,000-km-long river is notorious for its frequent floods. Three hundred floods have been recorded over the past 500 years, endangering the lives of people in the river valley. The area now produces 18 percent of the country's food grain and 15 percent of its coal.

 

The river flows through four central and eastern Chinese provinces, namely Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2006)