Zhu Zhifu, Huainan water resources department engineer in east China's Anhui Province, said during the past two months they had removed more than 200 cubic meters of earth from three separate sites infested by termites.

Inside the three-meter-deep holes, experts discovered 18 tunnels left by the insects, 25 cavities, and one abandoned nest.

After chemical treatment, all holes were sealed up by builders with high-pressure clay mixed with a special pesticide to ensure no termites can launch a counter-attack on the embankment.

Termites were first detected on April 27 when a tractor loaded with sand and stone suddenly sank into a nest. The vital embankment extends for six kilometers (3.73 miles) on the Heili Section of the Huaihe River.

As this was the first time termites had been found undermining Huaihe River dykes, the Ministry of Water Resources earmarked 200,000 yuan (about US$24,096) and dispatched an emergency squad of termite prevention and water conservancy experts.

According to Zhu, the fast-breeding insect is to blame for nearly half the country's leaking and collapsing dykes and poses a severe threat to the security of embankments.

With the flood season underway, local water resource department workers have regularly inspected the dyke but found no more termite tunnels.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2002)