BEIJING, April 4 (AFP) China warned Friday that a sixyear spate of droughts across the western QinghaiTibet plateau was threatening the Yellow River.

Reservoir levels have already fallen to record lows and water flow in the river's upper reaches is down 25 percent in comparison with last year, Sun Meizhai of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee told Xinhua.

The Yellow River is the second largest river in China. But its water flow is less than five percent of the mighty Yangtze River, and heavily dependent on rainfall on the plateau, so sections frequently dry up or alternatively flood dramatically.

Sun said water levels in the upperreaches Longyangxia and Liujiaxia reservoirs had both fallen below the previous worst drought levels in 1954 by the end of March.

While water flow as a whole was down 25 percent over last year, the section flowing through Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, decreased by nearly 33 percent compared to average levels in the past, Sun added.

Although there have been countless proposals for large earthmoving projects to divert water north from the Yangtze River, the Yellow River continues to be known as "China's Sorrow" because of the havoc is wreaks on the lives of those nearby.