The landslides that were caused by the 12 May earthquake in China had resulted in the formation a number of about 30 ‘quake lake,’ the biggest of them being the one at Tangjiashan. The lake poses great threat to about 1 million people because the danger of it flooding the area surrounding it is high at any time.

The Chinese authorities have sent about 600 policemen and soldiers to dig a drainage channel to stop or at least slow down the rising level of the lake’s water. Despite their six-day effort of digging the 475-meter channel, the inflow of water is about 5 times greater than the natural leakage and the man-made drainage combined.

Another reason for the authorities to be alarmed is the fact that the Tangjiashan quake lake has recently been rocked by another aftershock wave, the 20-second since the 12 May earthquake. Its magnitude was of about five, compared to the quake’s 7.9.

Military specialists have also fired missiles and detonated dynamite in order to make some room for the water to flow out. They have also said that detonating underwater charges of dynamite is also planned, and that this measure is supposed to increase the amount of water that flows through the drainage channel.

250,000 people have been evacuated from the area near the quake lake, which is located in the Sichuan province in the southwest of China. The 12 May earthquake took the lives of more than 69,000 people, while another 17,000 have been announced missing.

Chinese experts think that they will manage to take care of the problem especially since there haven’t been announced any rain in the following days