Water projects stand test of strongest floods in 20 years
That helped keep the highest water level at the Hukou station to 22.49 meters, 1 centimeter lower than the maximum design level for dike safety and 10 centimeters lower than the record high, even as some stations at the lake hit historic highs. Without the help of those reservoirs, the pressure on flood control around Poyang Lake would have been massive, he said.
"The Three Gorges Dam played a marked role," Chen Guiya said.
He said the help the Three Gorges Dam provided to Poyang Lake was not as notable as that to Dongting Lake because more water entered the mainstream of the Yangtze from its tributaries as the river flowed eastward. Meanwhile, Poyang Lake also got a lot of water from rivers in its own basin. On July 11, for example, over 45,000 cubic meters of water entered the lake each second.
