Controlled Flood Eases China Quake Lake Fears

A torrent of muddy water and debris roared down from the mountains of Sichuan today after soldiers used anti-tank rockets and dynamite to drain a dangerously unstable "quake lake".

Local media said dead bodies, cars and household goods were swept downstream as the controlled flood rushed through Beichuan and other communities devastated by last month's earthquake.

Troops used explosives to blast open three channels from the Tangjiashan quake lake, the biggest of 30 bodies of water formed by earthquake-induced landslides.

More than 250,000 people have been evacuated in the past two weeks amid fears that the rising volume of the lake might burst through the unstable mud-and-rock barrier.

In an increasingly desperate move to clear drainage channels, helicopters have flown earth movers up to the remote mountain site and soldiers have fired rockets at boulders blocking the flow.

The measures appeared to work today as the water level of the lake dropped by 13 meters, according to Xinhua news agency.

Although the danger has not passed completely, officials were cautiously optimistic that a contingency plan to evacuate another million people would not be needed.

"The flow downstream has increased dramatically, but the dam hasn't collapsed," Zhou Hua, spokesman for the lake relief operation, told the Reuters news agency. "So far everything is happening within expectations. As things are, we don't expect to have to evacuate any more."

For many survivors at Beichuan, the flood is an added misery because they will not be able to salvage belongings from homes destroyed by the earthquake.

An unknown number of the 69,142 dead and 17,551 missing are now below the waters.Elsewhere, however, the reconstruction effort is in full swing. According to the government, relief workers have completed 57,100 temporary homes and materials have arrived for 88,600 more. Almost a million tents have been sent to the region.

Refugees say the government has promised to build permanent homes for all the homeless survivors within five years, though it remains unclear who will pay.

Life in the quake-hit region is far from being back to normal, but businesses are starting to reopen and students will take college entrance exams in early July, one month later than usual.

According to the China Daily newspaper, 15 Sichuan provincial officials have been fired for malpractice in quake relief operations.