A month-long campaign has been started to clear some hundreds of meters-long belts of garbage floating along the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

The efforts involve 15 districts and counties in Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province, both of which manage the reservoir, which runs over 600 kilometers.

This is the largest of such efforts since the reservoir began to store water a year ago, according to authorities in charge of the clearing campaign.

Floating garbage has become a nuisance. According to the maritime bureau of Hubei's Yichang City where the dam is located, the successively intensive rainfall at the upstream Yangtze River has made the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir dramatically rise and rushed down a great number of branches, weeds and rubbish into the main navigation channel of the reservoir, seriously affecting the navigation and sometimes even causing some navigation blocks.

Bureau officials said floating garbage in the flood season is different from what appeared last year when the water storage began. The garbage last year was mainly urban rubbish, which floated slowly and randomly. The garbage this year rushes in a great amount and converges mainly at the mouths of tributaries to the Yangtze River.

In a bid to guarantee navigation safety in the Three Gorges Reservoir, particularly at key areas like backwaters and sightseeing areas, the main districts in Chongqing have formed a team of 300 people and more than 70 boats to clear floating garbage.

Source: Xinhua