More than 300 cargo vessels have been held up at a section of a river in southern China due to thick silt and a dropping water level, local navigation authorities said Tuesday.
The ships have been waiting since Nov. 2 to enter Guangdong Province via the Changzhou ship lock in Wuzhou City in neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the Wuzhou Channel Administration.
The vessels were sailing on the Xijiang River, a major tributary of the Pearl River, bringing coal, carbon, cement, grains and other products to Guangdong and other domestic and overseas markets.
However, thick sediment has made the river route shallow and delayed many large ships.
In addition, the water level in that section of the river dropped to about 1.8 meters in the dry season, well below the normal range of 2.2 meters to 2.8 meters.
On the worst day, up to 700 ships were forced to wait.
At present, about 100 to 200 small and mid-sized ships are allowed to pass the lock daily. The gate's usual daily capacity is about 300 vessels.
More than 300 ships are waiting at a designated zone about 2 km from the ship gate.
Workers and dredgers are clearing the channel, but the process could take as long as 10 days.
More ships may be delayed before the lock resumes normal operations, which could temporarily worsen the situation, channel administration officials said.
Source: Xinhua
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