Water levels at China's Three Gorges Dam near maximum after torrential rain

Water being released from the Three Gorges Dam on July 19, 2020. - AFP

SHANGHAI (Reuters): Water levels at China's giant Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river are inching closer to their maximum after torrential rains raised inflows to a record high, official data showed on Friday (Aug 21).

With 75,000 cubic metres per second of water flowing in from the Yangtze river on Thursday, the reservoir's depths reached 165.6m by Friday morning, up more than 2m overnight and almost 20m higher than the official warning level.