Aerial photo taken on Aug. 20, 2020 shows floodwater gushing out from the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province. The Three Gorges Reservoir is undergoing the test of a record high inbound water flow on Wednesday since the reservoir was constructed in 2003. The inbound flow reached 75,000 cubic meters per second around 8 a.m. as the peak floodwater of Yangtze River's fifth flood of the year arrived at the dam. Photo:Xinhua

Engineers and experts said that though the dam faced a harsh flood test last year, this summer it is expected to go through a steady rainy season, and the dam is fully prepared for any circumstances.

In 2020, the Yangtze River encountered several rounds of heavy floods. The Three Gorges project, together with several cascade reservoirs, successfully prevented a total of 38.8 billion cubic meters of floods, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total floods prevented in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze.

According to climate predictions, this year will be a relatively steady and normal year for the Three Gorges Dam, and there may even be a drought in downstream areas of the Yangtze River, Wang Hai, director of the reservoir management department of the river basin management center under the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Last year, due to the extreme climate conditions, the flood in the Yangtze River were a test for the Three Gorges Dam, Wang said. 

"But the project is designed to prevent a huge flood that happens once a century. The flood last year was a once-in-forty-year level, not enough to pose a risk for the Three Gorges Dam," Wang said.

Wang said that the dam has pre-arranged plans for any kind of test.

The Three Gorges Dam has 23 spillway deep holes in total. In 2020 when the flood peak passed through the dam, it opened 11 holes, the most ever since the project began generating electricity. "So the flood did not reach the limit of the dam," an employee at the dam told the Global Times.