Water bodies near Xizang earthquake epicenter intact

No safety hazards have been identified in both natural and man-made water bodies near the epicenter of the deadly 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Dingri county of Shigatse in the Xizang autonomous region, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Following the quake at 9:05 am on Tuesday, the ministry activated a Level Ⅳ emergency response, the lowest in a four-tier system in the country and promptly conducted screening operations to assess water bodies and water management facilities in the vicinity of the epicenter, a release issued by the ministry on Wednesday said.

While expert officials were deployed to comb through all areas where secondary disasters may happen, satellite remote sensing images were employed to analyze the potential adverse effects resulting from the seismic event, the ministry stated.

Within a 50-kilometer radius of the epicenter, there are five small reservoirs and five small hydropower stations.

No collapse has happened to dikes of these facilities and no barrier lake was found as well, it said. No structural failures have been reported in the embankments of these facilities, and there have been no instances of barrier lake formation.