The Yellow River, China's second largest, has shed nearly 200
million tons of sand in the past two years, said Li Guoying, deputy
director of the Yellow River Water Resources Committee, in
Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan
Province, Thursday.
The loss had increased the river's flow by 100 to 400 cubic
meters per second, Li said at the National Conference of Water
Resources Directors.
The committee organized sand washing operations in July of 2002
and September of 2003 by discharging speeding currents from the
massive Xiaolangdi Reservoir on the lower reaches of the river,
successfully carrying 187.1 million tons into the sea.
The reservoir had prevented some 900 million tons of silt from
flowing to the lower reaches since it started storing water in
October 1999.
However, the build up of silt in the lower reaches of the river
was still severe, with 400 million tons filling the riverbed every
year.
The silt had built up a new riverbed, known as the "second
hanging river" by the locals, on top of the original riverbed, on
the lower reaches from Kaifeng to the mouth.
The Yellow River carries some 1.6 billion tons of silt into the
sea every year, raising the level of the riverbed in the lower
reaches by 10 centimeters.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2004)