Construction work on a flood warning system in Poyang Lake, east China's Jiangxi Province, has started, as part of a provincial effort to fight flooding at China's biggest freshwater lake.

The latest optic-fibre and satellite communication technology and facilities will be used for the system, which is expected to finished in two years, and will link 11 water conservancy bureaus and cover 24 towns on the lake.

The system would automatically collect information regarding rainfall, water level, danger situations and possible disasters, and then analyze the data in reference to past cases to offer proposals to effectively prevent flooding, said experts.

Poyang Lake, situated at the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, is susceptible to flooding, posing a major threat to local development.

During the devastating 1998 floods, 400 buildings surrounding the lake were inundated, leaving more than 1 million people homeless and causing economic losses of more than 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2003)