China blasted a dam on Sunday to release surging waters amid widespread flooding across the country that has claimed hundreds of lives.
State broadcaster CCTV reported the dam on the Chuhe River in Anhui province was destroyed with explosives early Sunday morning, after which the water level was expected to drop by about 2 feet.
Water levels on many rivers, including the mighty Yangtze, have been breached danger mark due to torrential rainfall.
今天凌晨2点49分、3点27分随着“轰”得两声巨响，滁河全椒段两处堤坝被炸开，滚滚的滁河水流向，全椒县二圩、三圩蓄洪区
可惜 国内铺天盖地不可抗力和天灾的宣传使得人们同仇敌忾 纷纷表示要与国家共度时艰。
我也是奇了。 pic.twitter.com/kLE82VZQHZ
— 青山兰 (@qingshanlan) July 19, 2020
Blasting dams and embankments to discharge water was an extreme response employed during China’s worst floods in recent years in 1998, when more than 2,000 people died and almost 3 million homes were destroyed.
Last week, the gargantuan Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze opened three floodgates as the water level behind the massive dam rose more than 15 metres above flood level. Another flood crest is expected to arrive at the dam on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, soldiers and workers have been testing the strength of embankments and shoring them up with sandbags and rocks. On Saturday, firefighters and others finished filling in a 188-meter break on Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake, that had caused widespread flooding across 15 villages and agricultural fields in Jiangxi province.
Flooding has been a major threat to much of central China for centuries, but experts say the widespread construction of dams in recent decades have cut off connections between rivers, lakes and floodplains and have exacerbated flooding.
The rapid melting of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may also be a cause of more dangerous summer flooding.