The clean-up process, which began on October 26 when the water level in the dam’s reservoir hit its maximum capacity, involved 100 people and 15 boats daily, the China Daily quoted Wang Yafei, head of the operation, as saying.

Over six days, the workers in Hubei province pulled out more than 600 tonnes of rubbish each day, which consisted mainly of tree trunks, branches and straw, the report said.

Household garbage is also a problem, as more than 150 million people live upstream from the dam, and rubbish is sometimes dumped directly into the Yangtze river because nearby municipalities are unequipped for waste disposal.