PREMIER Wen Jiabo has told local authorities to be fully aware of the "grave flood-control situation" and to prepare for more serious flooding of the Huaihe River, the third longest waterway in China.

Wen was speaking during an inspection tour in east China's Anhui Province over the weekend after concluding an inspection of flood control operations along the Yangtze, China's longest river, in Hubei Province.

Water levels on the Huaihe's main stream and tributaries rose above warning levels after extensive heavy rain in the river's upper reaches this month.

Although water levels have dropped in recent days, weather forecasters are predicting more heavy rain along the river and areas to the south in the next two days.

Wen said the Huaihe River flood-control headquarters must advise and coordinate local governments in flood prevention.

He ordered provincial governments along the river to work in concert and fully carry out instructions from the Huaihe River flood-control headquarters.

He urged greater efforts to build irrigation and conservancy projects, calling it essential to enhance the ability of flood control and prevention along the river.

Meanwhile, a swollen subtributary of the Yangtze River sent a deluge of water to Danjiangkou Reservoir, a major reservoir in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces.

The water level of the Danjiang River, a tributary of the Hanjiang River, rose to 217.59 meters on Saturday afternoon, with a water flow of 10,000 cubic meters per second, the highest since 1953, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said yesterday.

Water gushed into the Danjiangkou Reservoir, at the confluence of the Danjiang and Hanjiang rivers, at 34,100 cubic meters a second early yesterday, the second biggest deluge since the reservoir was built in 1968.

In northwest China's Shaanxi Province yesterday, an operation to close a breach on river embankment failed.

More than 3,000 soldiers and militiamen had been filling the gap on the Luofu River with stones and sandbags, and managed to narrow the 80-meter gap to 2 meters. But the breach expanded again to eight meters as stones and sandbags ran out, officials said.

Floods and other rain-triggered disasters that hit Shaanxi in the past 11 days had left at least 111 dead and 167 missing, provincial authorities said yesterday.

In Qianhe Township, in Shaanxi's Baoji City, more than 700 workers were speeding up efforts to repair a collapsed dike on the Qianhe River, a tributary of Weihe River, said a spokesman for the city's flood control and droughtrelief office.

Though China experiences heavy rains every summer, flooding this year is the worst in more than a decade. More than 1,000 people have died or disappeared, the highest death toll since 1998.

At least 34 people were killed and 28 are missing over the past two days across China.

• province [´prɔvins] n.省；领域；范围 (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• extensive [ik´stensiv] a.广阔的；大量的 (初中英语单词)
• headquarters [´hed,kwɔ:təz] n.总部(署)，司令部 (初中英语单词)
• advise [əd´vaiz] vt.忠告；建议；通知 (初中英语单词)
• essential [i´senʃəl] a.必需的 n.要素，要点 (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti] n.(办事)能力；才干 (初中英语单词)
• meanwhile [´mi:n´wail] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
• relief [ri´li:f] n.救济；援救；减轻 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• missing [´misiŋ] a.缺掉的；失踪的 (初中英语单词)
• repair [ri´peə] v.&n.修理，修补 (初中英语单词)
• inspection [in´spekʃən] n.检查；视察；参观 (高中英语单词)
• tributary [´tribjutəri] a.进贡的 n.进贡者 (高中英语单词)
• northwest [,nɔ:θ´west] n.&ad.西北(部) (高中英语单词)
• breach [bri:tʃ] n.&v.破坏；违犯 (高中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• weekend [´wi:kend, ,wi:k´end] n.周末休假 (英语四级单词)
• yangtze [´jæŋtsi:] n.长江 (英语四级单词)
• warning [´wɔ:niŋ] n.警告；前兆 a.预告的 (英语四级单词)
• prevention [pri´venʃən] n.预防；阻止；妨碍 (英语四级单词)
• provincial [prə´vinʃəl] a.省的 n.外省人 (英语四级单词)
• irrigation [,iri´geiʃən] n.灌溉；水利 (英语四级单词)
• swollen [´swəulən] swell的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• reservoir [´rezəvwɑ:] n.水库；蓄水池 (英语四级单词)
• drought [draut] n.旱灾；干旱 (英语四级单词)
• township [´taunʃip] n.乡；区 (英语四级单词)
• speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
• coordinate [kəu´ɔ:dineit] a.&n.同等的 v.协调 (英语六级单词)
• calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
• enhance [in´hɑ:ns] vt.提高，增加；增进 (英语六级单词)
• deluge [´delju:dʒ] n.大洪水 vt.泛滥 (英语六级单词)
• spokesman [´spəuksmən] n.发言人 (英语六级单词)