The surge of floodwater into the town, Beichuan, was part of an effort by engineers and soldiers to drain Tangjiashan, one of more than 30 so-called quake lakes that were formed by landslides. For weeks, the dam of rock and mud holding back the rising waters of the Jian River there has threatened to burst and flood towns and cities downstream that are home to 1.3 million people.

The rapid outflow means the water level of Tangjiashan could soon drop to a nonhazardous level, reported Xinhua, the official state news agency.

The flooding is contributing to the destruction of Beichuan, once home to 22,000 people and now a symbol of the earthquake’s savagery. Government officials said in May that they would like to preserve part of the ruined town, in the mountains of northern Sichuan Province, as a memorial to the earthquake’s victims. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Beichuan shortly after the quake while rescue workers were scouring the rubble for survivors.

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Water churned through a drainage channel and engulfed empty towns Tuesday after Chinese soldiers blasted away the debris that kept an earthquake-formed lake threatening more than a million people downstream.

Sichuan province’s Communist Party chief, Liu Qibao, declared “decisive victory” after more than half the 66 billion gallons of water drained off by early evening, easing pressure on a dam formed when the quake triggered a landslide of mud, rocks and other debris, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

More than 250,000 people had already moved to high ground due to concerns that the barrier holding back Tangjiashan lake could break. About 1.3 million people live downstream.

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Fears were mounting Monday for the safety of more than a million people downstream from a “quake lake” in China as waters threatening to burst a dam of landslide rubble were rising faster than engineers could drain them.

Authorities are concerned the Jianjiang River will top the dam unless efforts to dig and blast out emergency draining channels can drastically decrease the water level.

But engineers also risk letting out too much water at one time, which could also trigger a collapse of the dam created by a 7.9 magnitude quake that devasted China’s Sichuan province.

“Increasing the outflow of water is critical for the dam’s safety,” said Zhang Ting, head of the Sichuan provincial hydro-meteorological bureau, the Xinhua news agency reported.

“If the water flows too slowly, the inflow will increase the pressure on the dam. But again, too voluminous an outflow can erode the diversion channel and cause the dam to collapse.”

Update: Also, from Reuters:

Chinese troops are carving a third drainage channel into the unstable dam holding back a big “quake lake”, as water levels rise and aftershocks send more debris tumbling into the water, state media reported on Monday.

Soldiers are also using short-range missiles and dynamite to blast apart boulders blocking the first channel, to speed up the flow of water, the official Xinhua agency said.

The BBC has posted photos of the clearance of the “quake lake.”

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Water poured from a massive lake formed by China’s deadly earthquake in a carefully engineered diversion Saturday to ease the threat of flooding for a million people in the sprawling disaster zone.

After two weeks of frantic work by engineers and soldiers, waters flowed into the hurriedly built spillway, but at a rate too slow to cause the lake’s level to drop. Military engineers dynamited boulders and soldiers used excavators to deepen the channel to accelerate the flow, state media said.

“The lake was still dangerous despite the draining,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei as saying late Saturday.

For more background, see this CDT story.

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As heavy rains descended on northern Sichuan Province for the first time in a week, the government evacuated thousands of people on Friday from towns heavily damaged by the earthquake and now threatened by flooding from so-called quake lakes.

Some 30 were formed as landslides blocked rivers; if these natural dams gave way, cascades of water would engulf downstream areas.

So on Friday, people were fleeing to the mountains by foot, on motorcycles and in cars. Men holdings pigs in the back of a truck drove from the town of Sanzao. A woman hopped on the back of a motorbike with a plastic bag full of fruit and bottled water.

But along the crowded road running past the swollen Anchang River, hundreds paused in midflight to take photos, chat with neighbors or just stare at the roiling rapids.

“When it rains, it usually flows slowly, but here it’s going so fast,” said Du Yongan, a construction worker sitting on a bike and wearing a red plastic helmet. “This happened so suddenly.”

AFP has the latest on the largest of the so-called quake lakes, which is threatening to inundate millions living downstream:

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who arrived at the landslide-created Tangjiashan lake late on Thursday, ordered the evacuation of everyone in harm’s way.

Up to 1.3 million people could face floods if the rock and debris that has blocked the Jianjiang river bursts open, officials warned.

More than 250,000 people have already been evacuated but many others will have to be moved if the quake lake empties downstream rapidly.

Also, Bloomberg reports on potential damage to an oil pipeline if the lake bursts its banks:

The Lanzhou-Chengdu-Chongqing pipeline is 60 kilometers (37 miles) downstream from Tangjiashan lake, formed after the May 12 temblor that struck China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, China National Petroleum Corp. said in a statement on its Web site today. PetroChina’s Chairman Jiang Jiemin is at the site.

The 1,252-kilometer pipeline carries 70 percent of Sichuan’s oil-product supplies, linking the provincial capital of Chengdu and Chongqing city to PetroChina’s Lanzhou refinery in Gansu province. Premier Wen Jiabao said work on the lake is at a “critical point” as officials warned it may overflow and inundate townships downstream, Xinhua News Agency said today.

This video on efforts to drain the lake is from AP:

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday that efforts to drain a dangerously swollen “quake lake” were at a critical juncture, with one million people warned to prepare for the worst.

Wen, who has been very visible since the devastating May 12 earthquake in southwest Sichuan province, flew by helicopter to the lake at Tangjiashan soon after arriving in the disaster zone early Thursday, Xinhua news agency said.

“Now it’s a critical moment for the Tangjiashan quake lake, and the most important thing is to ensure no casualties among people,” Xinhua quoted Wen as saying.

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The largest “quake lake” formed by China’s most devastating earthquake in decades is not expected to start draining until Thursday due to a lack of rain, state media said.

Landslides caused by the May 12 quake have blocked the flow of rivers, forming more than 30 unstable “quake lakes” that threaten hundreds of thousands of people downstream.

Hundreds of troops working around the clock to defuse the threat of the largest lake, Tangjiashan, had retreated to safe areas after opening a giant sluice to drain the water once it rises about five more meters (just over 16 ft), the People’s Daily said.

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More than 1 million people may have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province valley if an earthquake-spawned lake begins flooding the region, an emergency official warned Friday.

Authorities were preparing to run a drill starting Saturday to ensure 1.3 million people in the Mianyang region can get out quickly if water should break through the wall of debris that dammed a river, creating Tangjiashan lake.

Hundreds of Chinese troops were working around the clock to drain the lake, which formed above Beichuan town when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake that killed more than 68,000 people.

Read also: Fears of disaster after the quake on BBC.

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Water experts yesterday called for a stop to an ongoing project to cover a riverbed with an impermeable plastic cover to create a man-made lake in Jinan to be scrapped.

Experts worry the plastic will disrupt the natural process of river water seeping into the ground, which they said would threaten the groundwater supply in the city, the capital of East China’s Shandong Province.

The project, conducted by the Western Town Headquarters under the municipal government, got under way in January despite much controversy.

It aims to turn a 2.3-kilometre section of the Beisha River into a man-made lake, adding a “scenic spot” to the newly-built university town.

See also – “Beijing environmental controversy dries up tourist site” by Asian Economic News; – “Yuanmingyuan lake bed project questioned” by China Daily.

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