Vice-Premier Calls for Increased Flood-Control Efforts 　　Vice-premier Wen Jiabao, who is in charge of flood control in China, has said that the fight against possible floods in the Taihu Lake basin involving Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and the city of Shanghai has been effective but needs to be strengthened. 　　Wen made the remark during a visit to the Taihu areas Friday to Saturday, where he visited the dike around the 2,200-sq.km. lake, a main sluice gate, and some major water conservation facilities. 　　The July 7 water levels in the Taihu Lake were 0.29 meters higher than the record, after the Taihu area was hit by torrential rains since late last month and rainfalls of nearly three times the normal amount of rain. 　　Wen told officials from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to be sure of the overall safety of local people, dikes, major cities, and trunk road. 　　He said that dikes around the lake and cities need to be further reinforced and that water needs to be drained into flood-relief channels and sluice gates that were built after the devastating floods in 1991 and have been useful in combating floods this year. (Xinhua) Economicnews 1999-07-12 Page2 Full Story in Chinese