The Yangtze River has escaped serious flooding this flood year despite levels rising above the danger lines for long periods, an official in charge of flood control said Thursday.

Wang Shucheng, deputy commander-in-chief with the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, was speaking in Nanchang after his inspection tour of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, which have suffered from severe flooding in the past.

Wang, also minister of Water Resources, pointed out that water levels of the Yangtze, China's longest river, this year were just one meter lower than that of the disastrous 1998 floods.

In some sections, the water remained higher than the danger line for five to six days, he added.

But the 3,500-kilometer trunk dike along the Yangtze River had successfully resisted the flood peak, thanks to continuous rebuilding and reinforcement over the past four years, he remarked.

Official sources indicate that the central government has injected over 160 billion yuan (US$19.3 billion) into water conservancy projects since the 1998 floods, accounting for 70 percent of the total investment in the field since 1949. Over 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) was used to rebuild and reinforce the trunk embankment.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2002)