WUHAN  -- China's central government spent 150 million yuan ($23 million dollars) on mending the collapsed banks of main streams and tributaries of the Yangtze River ahead of the rainy season.

A Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters spokesperson said on Thursday that serious bank collapses had occurred in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, which are in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze.

They found 83 sections of damaged banks along the main streams, measuring a total of 52 kilometers, and on the tributaries there were 32 sections, measuring 11 kilometers in total.

The water authorities are striving to complete the repair work ahead of the main rainy season from June to August.

Liu Ning, vice minister of water resources, said in late March that due to El Nino serious flooding was highly possible in the Yangtze drainage area.

The El Nino event, which began in September 2014, has been the longest and strongest of its kind since observation records began in 1951.