In a bid to fix a flooding problem at Tongguan, the Ministry of Water Resources has asked the Sanmenxia Reservoir to play down its operations in Shaanxi Province. 

The Weihe River, which joins the Yellow River at Tongguan, has plagued the area with floods believed to be caused by a raised river bed, documents released in Beijing yesterday say.

The document says the floods at Tongguan are mainly caused by water storage of the reservoir and its "unreasonable" operation. Indicating the reservoir could be the cause, the ministry said the river's water levels should be lowered by one or two meters.

Weihe analysts said the document can be taken as the ministry's response to a proposal to stop operation of the reservoir.

Although the ministry hesitated to stop the operation of reservoir - as some experts expected following last summer's deluge along the Weihe - the document was "the clearest official response," insiders say.

"Floods in the Weihe River area cannot be discharged due to the downstream reservoir but can be alleviated by controlling sediments and dredging up the soil on the Weihe," the ministry said.

Senior officials and leading experts responsible for the design of the reservoir have acknowledged that "the reservoir itself was a mistake."

This time, the document made it clear that "in the years ahead, the highest water level of the reservoir should be controlled below 318 meters in non-flood season with its flushing sluices all lifted up during flood season to lower water level in its upstream at Tongguan."

The ministry also suggested moving responsibility for control of ice floods and irrigation water to the Xiaolangdi Reservoir downstream.

The decision means the reservoir authority may have to give up its decades-old and profitable farm irrigation and hydropower generation operations, insiders say.

(China Daily February 6, 2004)