The staggering number of problem reservoirs, accounting for one-third of the country's total, was revealed by the country's Water Resources Minister Wang Shucheng, the Xinhua news agency said.

Aging and substandard designs are the two main reasons why China is now faced with this major infrastructure issue, the agency reported.

A total of 33 billion yuan (four billion dollars) will be needed to deal with the problem in a thorough manner, but lack of both time and money means this cannot be done by the onset of this year's floods.

Instead, local officials have been ordered to do what they can to prevent the reservoirs from disintegrating, and threatened they will be held responsible for whatever accidents might happen, Xinhua said.

TERRA.WIRE