China to Start Dredging Pearl River Estuary in SeptemberDredging of the Pearl River estuary in south China's Guangdong Province will start in September, according to local sources.The Pearl River is the second busiest inland river in China. The Pearl River Delta has also grown into one of China's most developed industrial bases in the past two decades. Coastal ports on the Pearl River estuary empty an annual average of 70.98 million tons of silt into the sea. The silting has caused the estuary to become smaller and limited the region's flood combating capacity. The Guangdong Provincial Headquarters for Dredging of the Pearl River Estuary, was set up in Zhuhai recently, an important coastal port city on the western bank of the estuary, to ensure the success of the work. Information from the organization said that the dredging will be carried out in several stages and will take ten years to complete. By then, the Pearl River estuary will be able to discharge floodwater from a most serious flooding in 100 years. The first phase of the dredging work will cost 50 million yuan (about 6.02 million US dollars). |
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