Construction workers have completed preparations for damming the diversion canal of the Three Gorges dam project and the work is scheduled to start this afternoon.

By Monday, workers had nearly dammed both the upstream and downstream cofferdams, leaving an opening about 15 metres wide.

"I'm confident that tomorrow's damming will be a complete success," Zhang Chaoran, general engineer with the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corp, told a press conference yesterday.

The damming will usher in the third phase of the 17-year project and is expected to take about 40 minutes. National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Li Peng and Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo will attend the event.

Thousands of tourists have been visiting the site to witness an important moment in the construction of the world's largest water-conservation project.

Sources close to the project headquarters told China Daily that the damming was about 10 days ahead of schedule.

Current favourable hydrological and weather conditions are the main factors behind the speed of the work, said an official surnamed Feng from the project headquarters.

The damming will go through the diversion channel built for the passage of ships during the project's second phase.

To successfully dam the canal, which is 350 metres wide and 3.7 kilometres long, the water flow needs to be no faster than 10,300 cubic metres per second. Previous hydrological records suggested mid-November as the only possible time the water flow would meet such requirements.

However, by October 31, the water flow was 9,050 cubic metres per second, down from 11,600 cubic metres per second on October 25. The flow has continued slowing down as a result of a drop in the volume of water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze.

Feng said he believed that the water level of the Yangtze at the Three Gorges project site would not rise within a week.

Following the canal damming, water will be discharged mainly from 22 diversion holes on the lower part of the main dam, each six metres wide and 8.5 metres high.



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