The world’s largest hydropower project has been releasing bigger quantities of water since late December, according to the China Three Gorges Project Corporation.

The company said the dam could release an additional 6.1 billion cubic meters of water to the lower reaches by reducing the reservoir’s water level from the current 155 meters to 144 meters.

The dam, 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, was completed in May last year and the water level in the reservoir was raised to 156 meters from 135 meters in October.

The company said the floodgates could maintain the water level at 144 meters.

The Yangtze River, the nation’s largest, has experienced the lowest water levels in around a hundred years since last summer due to scarce rainfall and severe drought in the upper reaches, according to the Yangtze River Hydrology Bureau.

The bureau said that in 2006, the tributaries reported 30 to 40percent less water flow than average.

The Yichang hydrology station, a little downstream from the dam, recorded only 64 percent of average annual water flow, the lowest since hydrology records began in 1877.

Water flow downstream in Hankou and Datong has also fallen off sharply.

It said the severe water shortage have led to occasional reports of boats being stranded in shallow water and difficulties in water use for industry, agriculture, and households.

Cheng Haiyun, the bureau’s chief engineer, earlier denied that the record low water level in the Yangtze was connected with the Three Gorges hydropower project.

Begun in 1993 and costing an estimated 180 billion yuan (23 billion U.S. dollars), the Three Gorges Project on the middle reaches of the river will have 26 generators when it is completed in 2009 and be able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.