China: Worst could still come

2005-06-24 07:48

Beijing - At least 536 have been killed and 137 are missing in Chinese floods so far this year, the government said as it braced itself on Friday for the start of the rainy season along the nation's major waterways.

"From the overall situation, the losses brought on this year by flood disasters is on the same level as what we experienced in the 1990s, but still lighter than the big disaster years of 1991 and 1998," the Civil Affairs Ministry said.

Major flooding this year has wreaked economic losses valued at 20 billion yuan ($2.45bn), with more than 44 million people affected, the ministry's flood headquarters said.

More than 31 million hectares of cropland have been damaged.

A rain belt that has hovered over most of the Guangxi region east to the coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang since June 16 has triggered widespread havoc with farmlands and cities submerged and mountain communities hit by landslides.

In the Longmen region of Guangdong province, one of the worst hit areas, up to 760mm of rain fell in a 69-hour period, while other areas experienced up to 400mm through the week, the ministry said.

So far in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian 125 people were either dead or missing on Wednesday. More than 1.4 million people across the southern regions have been evacuated, it said.

A let up in the rain is forecast in most of those areas by Saturday but then seasonal rains along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are expected.

They normally trigger flooding that begins in July and August, with experts preparing for the worst.

Dykes along Dongting Lake, one of China's largest fresh water lakes and situated along the Yangtze in Hubei province, are being reinforced and inspected by flood prevention teams, the People's Daily reported.

Large urban centres like Shanghai and Guangzhou are also bracing for floods.

In some of the worst flooding in recent memory, 4 100 people were killed mostly along the Yangtze in 1998 when torrential rains triggered huge landslides while reservoirs and dykes overflowed.

- AFP