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CNN Live Today

Chinese Fight Lake Floodwaters

Aired August 22, 2002 - 12:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In southern China now, what can be only described as an army of soldiers and civilians are working desperately trying to hold back floodwaters. Imagine this: 900,000 people filling and piling up sandbags. No end is in sight.
CNN's Lisa Weaver is on the scene -- Lisa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilian volunteers have been mobilized to keep the rising floodwaters behind the embankments at Dongting Lake. Even though the rain has stopped, a backlog of high water from previous days of torrential downpour has pushed levels up by nearly half a meter. That has brought the lake to its highest point in three years. Officials said they expect the waters to reach even higher in the coming days.

The hope that is that feverish work on the embankments can keep pace with the rising water and the clear weather can hold. The threat is far from over. Dongting Lake is huge, the size of Luxembourg. Water in one of four rivers feeding into the lake is already higher than the flood warning level. If surging rivers push the lake levels over the top, some 10 million people in the cities of Tangshan and Muhan (ph) would be threatened. So would densely populated farmlands in some of China's most vital rice-growing areas. Analysts say flooding damage so far will likely lead to lower rice production this year.

This summer's flooding has already killed some 1,000 people and is the worst since 1998, when more than 4,000 people lost their lives.

Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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