Big floods likely, authorities warn

China's flood control authorities are warning of possible big floods this summer as weather and hydrologic factors closely resemble those of 1998, when floods killed at least 3,000 people nationwide.

Because of the strong El Nino phenomenon - an oscillating band of warm surface water in the ocean - there is a strong possibility that floods will hit the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, according to Liu Ning, vice-minister of water resources, at a meeting on Thursday in Wuhan, Hubei province.

The Yangtze is China's longest river and the world's third-longest. Massive floods ravaged the river and its basin areas in 1998, claiming thousands of lives, and El Nino was blamed.