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100,000 Chinese evacuated as Yangtze River floods threaten World Heritage Site

  • Floodwater rises above the toes of the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan province for the first time in more than 70 years
  • Water inflows at Three Gorges Dam expected to hit record highs on Wednesday

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The Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan province has come under threat from rising floodwaters. Photo: Xinhua
More than 100,000 Chinese were evacuated on Tuesday because of floods on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which also threatened a 1,200-year-old Unesco World Heritage Site.
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Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try to protect the 71 metre (233 feet) Leshan Giant Buddha in southwest China’s Sichuan province, as muddy floodwater rose over its toes for the first time since 1949, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Sichuan, through which the Yangtze flows, raised its emergency response to the maximum level on Tuesday to cope with a new round of torrential rainfall.

The Yangtze Water Resources Commission, the government body that oversees the river, declared a red alert late on Tuesday, saying water at some monitoring stations was expected to exceed “guaranteed” flood protection levels by over five metres.

The Three Gorges Dam, a massive hydroelectric facility designed in part to tame floods on the Yangtze, is expected to see water inflows rise to 74,000 cubic metres per second on Wednesday, the highest since it was built, the Ministry of Water Resources said.

The Three Gorges Dam is a massive hydroelectric facility designed in part to tame floods on the Yangtze. Photo: Xinhua
The Three Gorges Dam is a massive hydroelectric facility designed in part to tame floods on the Yangtze. Photo: Xinhua
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The project restricts the amount of water flowing downstream by storing it in its reservoir, which has been over 10 metres higher than its official warning level for more than a month.

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