Traffic resumed after reservoir collapse in S China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-06 11:04

HAIKOU - Traffic had been resumed on Sunday on the highway that had been flooded by collapse of a small reservoir on March 27, in south China's Hainan Province, local authorities said.

The Wanning section of the province's eastern expressway had been resumed in both directions at 8:00 pm after nine days of reconstruction work, said an official with the provincial Communication Department.

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The Bofeng reservoir, with a designed water storage capacity of1.02 million cubic meters, collapsed at about 10 pm in Xinglong Town, Wanning City.

The ensuing floods washed out a slip road to the province's eastern expressway and swept away two cars, injuring three people in the vehicles.

The water also inundated 20 hectares of farmland and caused slight damage to three riverside houses.

The municipal water conservancy administration had claimed that only 100,000 cubic meters of water burst from the reservoir. However, Chen Xingzhang, secretary of the CPC municipal committee of Wanning, doubted its credibility.

Vehicles had to detour around the flooded road over the past days.

The reservoir was being reinforced at the time of the accident. An investigation showed that workers of a company in charge of the project exploded part of the cofferdam before the water dropped to the safety level, which led to the collapse. The scheme had no approval from authorities at the time.

The construction contractor, Hongda Water Conservancy Projects Co, Ltd., based in Henan Province, and the project supervising company, Hainan Institute of Water Conservancy and Power Construction Survey and Design, were banned from carrying out further business in the city.

Police have detained four project workers in connection with alleged safety violations that led to the collapse in the province, the local Communist Party of China (CPC) committee said Monday.

Chen Ruchuan, former head of the water conservancy administration of Wanning City, and two deputy heads, were also sacked from their posts Monday, according to the Wanning municipal committee of the CPC.

The local government has been working on a plan to compensate people affected in the accident.