Areas along the Huaihe River will continue to receive strong rainfall Wednesday, making flood control work increasingly difficult in East China's Anhui Province, which has already been seriously hit by floods.

A villager looks at his village submerged beneath floodwaters on July 6, 2003, after a dyke on Huaihe River dyke was blasted to allow water to flow into the lower reaches of Tangduo Lake in East China's Anhui Province. Roads and fields adjacent to the dyke were immediately submerged as the torrent was released. [newsphoto.com.cn]

In 24 hours from Tuesday night, the southern and eastern parts of Henan Province and most parts of Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, which the Huaihe River passes through, will experience torrential rain, thundershowers or hurricanes, said the Central Meteorological Station.

The localities need to guard against and control floods and geological disasters such as mud-rock flows and landslides, said the station.

Meanwhile, the station also forecast that the eastern part of Guizhou Province, the northern part of Hunan Province, and the eastern part of Hubei Province will also suffer heavy rain or thunderstorms.

The water level in most sections has exceeded the highest point in 1991 when a massive flood also occurred in the river, exceeding that of 1954. The entire mainstream of the river has exceeded the flood warning line.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and its provincial headquarters have set up seven flood diversion areas which hold 1.4 billion cubic metres of water. Some new canals are also being used to reduce the water level in the mainstream.

The province has allocated over 24.4 million yuan (US$2.97 million) to the affected areas. A large quantity of relief goods and a 5,000-strong emergency task force has been sent to the areas.

In another development, the water level of the Songhua River tributaries in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province are rising, according to local hydrology and water resources survey offices.

As of 8 am yesterday, the water level at the Harbin Hydrology Station had climbed to 111.23 metres, 1.16 metres above the record low recorded on June 12.

But with the onset of the flood season in late June, the water levels of all the tributaries of the Songhua and Neijiang rivers in the northeast have begun to rise.

In Xi'an, the capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province three local residents were killed in a sudden thunderstorm on Monday.

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