A river management official announced yesterday that work along the lower reaches of the Yellow River, the country's second longest, has resulted in about 1,330 hectares being claimed for its delta from the sea so far this year.

Zhu Xuede, director of the Yellow River Administration in east China's Shandong Province, said the silt clearing program established in 2002 to lower the riverbed had provided sediment at the river mouth that accrued to push the coastline 1.6 kilometers out to sea.

Every year the Yellow River carries 1.6 billion tons of silt into the lower reaches, where the watercourse is four to six meters higher than sea level, threatening surrounding communities with flooding.

Zhu said the program has reduced the risk of floods in the river's lower reaches and also slowed down seawater erosion at the river mouth.

A report by Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources publicized in February said the Yellow River Delta has been shrinking by an average of 7.6 square kilometers a year since 1996.

The new expansion of the wetland is hoped to bring more fish and other food sources for birds in the delta.

(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2005)