Chinese soldiers in urgent dig at dangerous lake

South Africa News.Net
Saturday 31st May, 2008 (BigNewsNetwork.com)

Chinese soldiers and engineers have been working incessantly to dig a spillway from an earthquake-created lake that is threatening to burst its banks in the central Chinese county of Beichuan.

Tangjiashan Lake did not exist before the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck mountainous Sichuan province May 12.

The quake created the lake after a landslide that dammed Jianjiang River.

Workers hope they can clear enough debris for the lake to flow in a controlled way to to bypass Beichuan town.

Farther downriver, in the town of Mianyang, the government was preparing to evacuate the population of 1.3 million people if the lake bursts its banks.

Some 200,000 people have already been ordered to leave at-risk areas downstream.

The lake in Beichuan County is the largest of several quake lakes created by the earthquake nearly three weeks ago and is rising about 2 to 3 meters every day.

Because the region is so remote the government is bringing in troops and equipment by helicopter.

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