The Yangtze last year fell to its lowest level since records began in 1877, but a dam official told the Xinhua news agency that power generation in the Three Gorges area would not be affected.

"There have never been two successive years when a serious drop in the amount of water flowing into the mainstream of the Yangtze has occurred," said the official, identified only by his surname Yuan.

"(So) I believe it is unlikely there will be a significant drop in the inflow of water into the Three Gorges Reservoir from the upper reaches this year," he said.

However, Xinhua quoted observers as saying such arguments, based on historical data, failed to take into consideration the more recent issue of climate change.

The Ministry of Water Resources Wang Shucheng said earlier this month that extreme and abnormal climatic phenomena like drought and floods have occurred more frequently due to global warming in recent years, Xinhua said.

More than 2.6 million people in southwest China's Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality, upstream from the dam, have been suffering from drinking water shortages since late February, according to the agency.

China Three Gorges Project Corp. signed a contract with the State Grid Corp. of China last December to sell 370 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity over the next five years.

The dam generated more than 150 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the period from July 2003 up till now, according to Xinhua.

China says the dam is essential as a source of hydropower and to stop the flooding along the Yangtze River that has killed countless people and destroyed farmland for centuries.

Human rights groups, however, have said villagers were forced from their homes, had their traditional ways of life destroyed and were sent to live in cities against their will.

Questions have long been raised over whether the displaced have received sufficient compensation, concerns highlighted by many cases of official corruption related to the project, they said.

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