On April 17, the Ministry of Water Resources held a video conference on reservoir safety and flood control. Mr. Li Guoying, Deputy Commander of the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and Minister of Water Resources, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Mr. Chen Min, Vice Minister of Emergency Management and concurrently Vice Minister of Water Resources, attended the meeting. Mr. Wang Baoen, Vice Minister of Water Resources, presided over the meeting.
The meeting stressed the importance of resolutely implementing the important speeches and instructions of President Xi Jinping on flood control and reservoir safety. It called for anchoring the goal of “no dam failure”, taking early, concrete, and detailed actions to implement various safety measures during flood season, improving the efficiency of safety management, upholding the bottom line of reservoir safety, and making every effort to protect the safety of people’s lives and property.
The meeting demanded that responsibilities for reservoir safety management be tightened and consolidated; that flood season operation plans, emergency response plans for reservoir dam safety management (flood control), and danger elimination plans be improved for each reservoir; that risk and hazard identification and treatment at key locations be strengthened; and that management of reservoir flood control capacity be enhanced. Efforts should be strengthened to enhance reservoir monitoring, forecasting, and early warning, as well as “three defense lines” for rainfall and water regime forecasting and monitoring (composed of meteorological satellites and rainfall radars, rainfall stations, and hydrological stations), so as to extend the lead time for reservoir inflow flood forecasting, and improve the accuracy of flood forecasting. Additionally, efforts should be made to enhance the construction, upgrading, and digital transformation of reservoir dam safety monitoring facilities, enabling real-time and accurate assessment of the condition of each reservoir.
The meeting emphasized the need to establish and improve long-term mechanism for reservoir reinforcement and operation maintenance, conduct regular safety assessments of reservoir dams, carry out timely reinforcement to eliminate safety hazards, accelerate the building of a modern reservoir operation management matrix, and comprehensively promote the repair and maintenance of small reservoirs. Reservoirs should be operated and managed systematically, scientifically, safely, and precisely on a river basin level, so that the flood volume, peak flows, and the overall flood process could be controlled in an active and effective manner.
Furthermore, we need to comprehensively enhance our capabilities and standards for emergency response, strengthen flood control drills, intensify research, development, and application of new equipment, improve the mechanisms for risk early warning, assessment and response, as well as pre-position targeted emergency response personnel, materials, and equipment.
Source: INTCE