The Three Gorges Dam recorded its first flood of 2011 on 30 June, according to a Xinhua report. The water flow rate in this section of the Yangtze River reached 39,000 cubic metres per second, said Yuan Jie, director of the Three Gorges Cascade Dispatching Center. The definition of a flood in the dam area is a water flow rate of at least 35,000 cubic metres per second.

The flood was caused by heavy rains in the Jialing River basin in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, said Wang Hai, an official with the dam’s construction and operation management bureau.

To ease pressure, the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has ordered a gradual increase in the amount of water that is discharged to the river’s lower reaches.