1.   Maintaining the dikes meant periodically having to make them higher, since sediment brought downstream raised the riverbed and increased the danger of flooding.

2.   Maintaining the dikes meant periodically making them taller, since sediment brought downstream raised the riverbed and increased the danger of flooding.

3.   The efforts to maintain the dikes required the cooperation of the local population.

4.   The flooding has prompted direct orders from President Jiang Zemin to local officials to ensure dikes are maintained and victims aided.

5.   With flooding worse than it has been in decades, millions of civilians and soldiers have been drafted this year to maintain dikes.