Dredgers dig shipping lanes in drying Yangtze

SHIPPING channels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are to be dredged as the water falls to its lowest level in 20 years.

Authorities have withdrawn a large silt dredger from a north China offshore construction site to dredge channels at Heishazhou (Blacksand Shoal), 40 kilometers upstream from Wuhu Bridge on the lower reaches, said Wan Dabin, a senior official with the Yangtze River Waterway Bureau.