Lower reaches of Yellow River enter ice-jam flooding season

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 22, 2021 shows the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia reach of China's Yellow River. (Yellow River Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources/Handout via Xinhua)

JINAN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The lower reaches of the Yellow River, the second-longest river in China, entered the ice-jam flooding season on Wednesday, according to the Yellow River Shandong Bureau.

The bureau said it will hold weekly meetings to analyze and forecast the ice-jam flooding situation. It has ordered counties and cities along the river to revise and improve precautionary measures depending on the actual situation.

A total of 354,000 people have been organized to take part in ice-control activities, it said.

Ice-jam floods are a common occurrence on the Yellow River in early winter and spring when changing temperatures cause freezes and thaws. The flows jamming the channel can damage or flood the river banks.

The Yellow River, measuring 5,464 km in length, originates in Qinghai Province and flows through Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan, before passing through Shandong and emptying into the Bohai Sea.