TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Wednesday (July 22) showing a dam in eastern China's Anhui Province opening all 14 of its flood gates, flooding tens of thousands of acres of farmland.

There have been continuous rainstorms in southwest China since the beginning of June, and the rain belt has extended to the whole Yangtze River Basin. The entire basin has been continuously plagued by flooding for about 40 days.

In recent days, the rainfall has expanded across China, and the rain belt has moved northward. As a result, the Yellow and Huai river basins have also begun to see extensive flooding.

Sitting between the Yangtze and Yellow rivers is the Huai River, which has been dubbed the "most difficult river to manage in China." Over the past 40 days, Anhui Province's Huoqiu County has been hammered by 813 mm of rain, 535.8 mm more than the 277.2 mm recorded over the same period last year, reported China's state-run mouthpiece the People's Daily.

By July 20, the water level of Run River (润河) which is a tributary of the Huai River rose to 27.65 meters, exceeding the warning level by 2.35 meters, reported Anhui News. In order to relieve pressure from the Huai River, authorities issued an order on July 20 to open all 14 flood gates of the Jiangtang Lake dam at 1:00 p.m. that day.

According to the report, 461 people from six villages downstream were evacuated before the flood gates were opened. After the floodwater discharge was implemented, more than 50,000 acres of farmland was flooded and the direct economic loss is estimated to reach in the hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan.

A Chinese vlogger who goes by the pseudonym Harry Chen Ph.D. posted the following video of the floodgates being opened in Huoqiu County on Wednesday:

The opening of the 49-hole gate in Huoqiu County near Hefei.#ChinaFloods pic.twitter.com/1EOu8FN8ja

— The Underground Silk-Railroad Communique (@UndergroundSilk) July 22, 2020