Water projects stand test of strongest floods in 20 years
As the strongest floods since 1998 rage through many areas along Asia's longest river, Chen is just one of thousands of commission employees devoted to flood control.
Based on information from over 30,000 hydrological and rain-monitoring stations, the commission holds joint conferences twice a day. More than 30 of Chen's colleagues take part, including leaders of the commission, a body of the Ministry of Water Resources.
"Based on real time hydrological and rainfall information and forecasts, we discuss the operational plan-which water conservancy projects we are going to mobilize to help store floodwater," he said.
Aside from the conferences, which usually last two to three hours but occasionally run longer, Chen and his colleagues have a lot of other work to grapple with, and treacherous weather can make them even busier.