Workers finished removing garbage floating in the Three Gorges Dam in east China's Hubei Province Monday, ensuring the efficient operation of the dam's generators after engineers recently raised the dam's water level.

The world's largest water-control and hydropower project, the water level in the dam in Zigui County hit 175 meters, the designed maximum, on October 26.

During the raising of the dam's water level, large amounts of garbage appeared at the front of the dam, threatening the functioning of the hydropower turbo-generators.

Over six days, until October 31, workers salvaged more than 3,800 tonnes of garbage.

"All of the salvaged garbage will be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way. There will be no disposal in rivers and nearby places," said the local environmental protection bureau's Wang Yafei, director of the clean-up teams.

China launched the Three Gorges Project in 1993 with a budget equivalent to US$22.5 billion.

The dam is a multi-functional water control system, consisting of a dam, a five-tier ship lock, and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.

The 185-meter-deep reservoir was built on the upper middle-reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2010)