After inspecting the flood-prevention work along the reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, Zhu last week visited the reaches of the Nenjiang and Songhua rivers in Northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, which were ravaged by serious floods in 1998.

During the visit, he inspected the flood-prevention work and the construction of dykes in the region.

Now that flood season has arrived for the Nenjiang and Songhua rivers, he said, government officials should be ready to put emergency disaster plans into effect.

One must be far-sighted in fighting floods, Zhu said, adding that the construction of flood-control projects must be reinforced.

Although the central government has invested a large sum of money to construct flood-control projects in the region, potential problems remain, he said.

Preventing soil erosion and establishing a sound ecological environment are as important for fighting floods as building dykes, Zhu said.

He urged local governments to speed up their industrial restructuring with sustainable development in mind.

Local governments should use natural resources wisely and not wastefully to help protect the ecology, he said.

(China Daily July 29, 2002)