This archive report was first published on 20 July 2020.
Published on July 20, 2020, floods in central and eastern China have claimed over 140 lives and left many more missing, affecting nearly 24 million people since the start of July.
As major rivers and lakes hit record highs, authorities have taken measures to manage water levels, including diverting water into backup reservoirs.
One such measure was the demolition of a dam on the Chu River in Anhui province, which was carried out on Sunday to ensure the safety of nearby residents.
"Affected by continuous downpours and upstream flows, the water level of the Chu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, has moved from a slow rise to a sharp one," local media reported on Monday.
The blasting of the dam was expected to reduce the level of the Chu River by around 70 centimeters (28 inches), with the released water being channeled into two downstream storage ponds, according to the state-run Global Times.
Meanwhile, the Three Gorges Dam opened three floodgates after the water rose more than 15 meters above flood level, and soldiers erected sandbag flood barriers in a city near China's largest freshwater lake after the heaviest rainfall in nearly six decades drenched the Yangtze River basin.
