BEIJING, April 17 -- A Chinese official on Monday stressed the urgency of ensuring the safety of reservoirs nationwide during the ongoing flood season.

While stepping up forecast, warning and contingency measures, the relevant departments across the country should conduct regular examinations and maintenance of reservoirs, said Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying during a video conference.

These departments must speed up the building of rainfall and flood monitoring systems with the help of meteorological satellites, precipitation radars and hydrologic stations, Li said, also stressing the development of digital water conservancy technologies.

Efforts should also go into shoring up reservoirs, limiting the use of reservoirs that are in danger and removing all illicit structures around them, Li added.

China currently has over 97,000 reservoirs of all types, the majority of which are small or medium sized.

The country has front-loaded 3 billion yuan (about 436.8 million U.S. dollars) of subsidies from its 2023 budget to reinforce small reservoirs.