By Xinhua,
Mianyang(China) : Chinese authorities Saturday said there was no immediate danger of quake-formed Tangjiashan lake bursting its banks and flooding the lowlands as engineers succeeded in draining water into a man-made sluice channel.
Rao Xiping, head of the Beichuan hydrometeorological station, said the volume of flow was yet to reach the targeted 100 plus cubic meters per second but there was no danger of overflowing.
“The dam is safe now,” said Rao, adding that no more spots of overflowing had been spotted.
A Xinhua reporter at the commanding center saw via satellite monitor images of water passing into the sluice channel. The flow was rapid, steady and gradually increasing in volume.
Armed police force personnel were working to broaden the sluice channel to improve flow of water.
The swollen lake was formed by a massive landslide following the May 12 earthquake that jolted the country’s southwest. It posed a major threat to 1.3 million people downstream.
More than 250,000 people in low-lying areas in Mianyang have been relocated on fear that the lake could breach its banks.
The swollen quake lake has put China’s longest oil pipeline at risk. The pipeline, winding its way from Lanzhou via Chengdu to Chongqing, was 60 km downstream from the lake.