YICHANG, July 2 -- The Three Gorges Dam is coping comfortably with the first flood of the year, its operator said on Thursday.

The reservoir's inflow reached a peak of 39,000 cubic meters per second at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and had gradually reduced to 31,000 cubic meters per second by 8 a.m. on Thursday, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation.

On Monday, the Yangtze River flood control headquarters ordered that the outflow of the reservoir be kept at about 25,000 cubic meters per second given the recent rainfall in the upper reaches.

The generators of the Three Gorges power plant, the world's largest, and the Gezhouba hydropower plant downstream are operating stably.

The Three Gorges reservoir lowered its water level to 145 meters to brace for the coming flood season last month.

Under the flood control plan this year, the reservoir water level should stand between 144.9 and 146.5 meters between mid-June and Aug. 31.

The Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River in Yichang City, Hubei Province, is a multi-functional water control system consisting of a dam stretching 2,309 meters wide and 185 meters high, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.