The situation in China could be getting worse. Troops have been rushed in to plug dangerous cracks in a dam close to Dujiangyan in Sichuan province.
"It (the dam) is only five kilometres away, we are downstream of it," Speaking from Dujiangyan, Sky's China correspondent Peter Sharp said.
"We understand that some of the People's Liberation Army troops that are deployed here helping with the rescue operation... 2,000 of them [have been moved] upriver to seal some serious cracks in the dam wall."
The
Zipingku Dam has suffered dangerous cracking due to the 7.9-magnitude earthquake on Monday in
China.
China rushed 2,000 of their troops in to plug up the cracks. This is not the only dam though in the nation devastated by the massive earthquake. On the National Development Reform Commission's website it was stated that 391 dams have been damaged, two of those are large dams, 28 medium sized and the rest are small dams. The website did not state if Zipingpu was one of the dams.
The city of Dujiangyan would be swamped if the dam were to burst. The ministry has set up an emergency command centre at the dam "to discharge the reservoir's rising waters and guarantee that the damage posed no threat to Dujiangyan and the neighboring Chengdu Plain."
The reports of the damage at these dams comes as search and rescue effects intensify to find survivors amongst the rubble. As the hours tick away those still alive by not be rescued in time. 15,000 have already been declared dead with an additional 14,000 people listed as missing. There are reports that a group of 15 British tourists are among those missing.
One small town suffered 7,700 deaths.
Those at the epicenter are just beginning to receive aid as China begins making the first airdrops of food into the region.
The death toll in China is rising from the quake. If any of these dams come down that toll will rise even higher as waters flood the already damaged cities and villages of central China.
The largest dam in China, Three Gorges Dam, appears not to have suffered any damages from the earthquake.
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China Now Dealing With Dams Damaged by Earthquake
