China has the power to stage the greatest Olympics and World Expo as well as building the world's largest network of high-speed railways boasting ground speeds of up to 350 kilometers an hour.

But when it comes to the annual floods along the Yangtze River and the havoc they wreak on the richest parts of the country, there isn't much people can do.

The economic losses caused by floods this year almost equal the total investment in the gigantic Three Gorges Dam. The government should reconsider their water-taming strategies when they draft major economic plans, so as to prevent financial gains from being eaten away by relentless floods.

The 6,300-kilometer Yangtze and its branches support more than one-third of the country's total population, and almost half of its agricultural output. Big cities such as Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai are just part of the shining pearls near the waterway.

However, floods have dealt huge blows to the economy and to people's livelihoods in the Yangtze regions.

This year's floods have left hundres of people dead in China, inundated more than 6 million hectares of farm land and caused at least 120 billion yuan ($17.6 billion) in direct financial losses. The lost money is comparable to the 185 billion yuan ($27.2 billion) invested in the Three Gorges project that is designed to tame the river and generate electricity for the country's booming economy.