AP/Wideworld

C

hinese officials say they have created a 10-meter-wide, 475-m-long diversion channel to drain water from earthquake-formed Tangjiashan Lake without dynamite because they feared that blasting might trigger uncontrollable movements in the unstable material and cause serious flooding. The risk posed by this lake, the largest among the 34 water bodies that formed behind landslide debris after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, remained at ENR press time as the water had not yet begun to drain. Nearly 200,000 people living downstream of the lake have been evacuated and another one million have been asked to be ready to flee at short notice. The flow of water is expected to erode the blockage gradually.