After earthquake stroke the Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, the safety of Dujiang Weir has been attracted great concern from the public. The Earthquake Damage Relief Headquarters of the Ministry of Water Resources therefore provided the following information after making consultations.

Dujiang Weir is located west of Dujiang City and was built in about 256-251 B. C. The weir mainly consists of three parts: the Fish Snout, the Flying Sand Spillway and the control section of the Inner Canal, nicknamed the Mouth of Treasure Bottle. The Fish Snout is water diversion headwork that built on the pebble river bed, dividing the river into two channels. The Flying Sand Spillway links the Fish Snout and the Mouth. Surplus water in the inner canal would overflow the spillway to the outer canal when water is over diverted. The project has been mainly used for irrigation of farmlands in the west of the Sichuan Plain.

Investigations have been made after the earthquake, it is found that crack appears in the Fish Snout. Although regulating house of the outer canal and standby power house collapsed, the current situation does not affect the safe operation of the project. However, Dujiang Weir situates at the downstream of the Zipingpu Reservoir, the safe of Zipingpu Reservoir will have big impact on the Dujiang Weir.

In order to safeguard the Zipingpu Dam and Dujiang Weir, MWR has adopted five measures: 1) a working team and a expert panel has been sent to project sites; 2) on-site disaster relief headquarters was established for securing the dam of Zipingpu; 3) experts are organized to make detailed investigations on Zipingpu for safeguarding the dam; 4) dynamic monitoring for the operation of the dam is conducted; 5) a working team was also dispatched to the site of Dujiang Weir for providing assistance of handling damages of the project.