Alert as mercury in Shanghai touches 36
CHINA has swung into top gear to strengthen its flood-defense network as incessant downpours continue to wreak havoc across vast stretches of the country, with unusually high precipitation causing alarm.
The Ministry of Water Resources yesterday raised the emergency response for flood control to Level II, the secondhighest, as heavy downpours continued to lash vast stretches of the country.
Since July 4, floods have been observed in 212 rivers nationwide, among which 19 topped previous water level records, according to the ministry.
China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters also lifted the emergency response to Level II yesterday, following its last upgrade from Level IV to Level III last Tuesday.
China has a four-tier flood control emergency response system, with Level I representing the most severe.
The announcement came after Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake located in the eastern province of Jiangxi, has seen its water level rise to a record high yesterday, according to the provincial department of water resources.
The water level at the lake’s Xingzi hydrological station rose to 22.53 meters, 0.01 meters higher than the record in 1998, and continued going up, said the department.
A recent round of rainfall and upstream inflows have led to a sharp rise in the river water level in Jiangxi. The incessant downpours have also pushed the lake water to exceed warning levels since July 5.
So far, 34 hydrological stations in the province have seen water currents exceed warning levels.
Xu Weiming, secretary-general with the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters, said the lake area had seen significant improvement in the embankment and flood-resistant equipment compared with 1998 when a devastating flood occurred along the Yangtze River.
“We will put the safety of people’s lives in priority and make every effort to battle against the historic floods,” he added.
The Changjiang Water Resources Commission issued a red alert for floods in the Poyang Lake area on July 10, and a day later, Jiangxi Province raised its flood-control response from level II to level I, the top level of China’s four-tier emergency response for floods.
Floods since July 6 have affected over 5.2 million people in the province, with 432,000 people evacuated from floodprone areas. A total of 167,000 people are in urgent need of living assistance, according to the local flood control and drought relief headquarters.
The floods have damaged over 455,700 hectares of crops and caused a direct economic loss of 6.49 billion yuan (US$ 930 million).
On Saturday, more than 53,300 people were mobilized in fighting the floods in Jiangxi, aided by 1,545 sets of mechanical equipment.
The water level in Taihu Lake, the country’s second-largest freshwater lake, has also risen above the alert level for 15 consecutive days.
Due to severe flooding, the headquarters, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration yesterday allocated disaster-relief supplies like tents, blankets, and fold-up beds to the provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou.
Meanwhile, China has allocated a total of 309 million yuan for disaster relief in floodhit regions of the country, the
National Development and Reform Commission.
The funds were channeled to areas hit hard by floods, including Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Chongqing, in support of the construction and repair of local infrastructure and public facilities.
Floods in 27 provincial regions, including Jiangxi, Anhui, and Hubei had resulted in the deaths or disappearance of 141 people, and 2.25 million emergency relocations this year. Around 28,000 homes were flattened and 3.53 million hectares of crops affected, with the direct economic loss at 82.23 billion yuan (US$11.76 billion).
Experts noted that the work of flood control is at a crucial stage, as the dual challenges
of floods and COVID-19 have put China’s disaster relief and emergency management systems to the test.
“Frequent floods are expected in China’s rivers in July and August due to heavy rainfall,” said Wang Zhangli, an official with the Ministry of Water Resources, requiring a high level of vigilance.
This year’s flood season comes as China is striving to resume normal business operations after securing major strategic achievements in combating COVID-19, said Zhang Jiatuan, an official with the Ministry of Emergency Management, calling for multi-pronged measures to overcome the dual challenges.
(Xinhua)
SHANGHAI witnessed the first high-temperature day of the year yesterday, while the plum rain season was the longest in the past two decades, according to the city’s meteorological bureau.
A yellow alert was issued by the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau at 11:35am, with the temperature later hitting a high of 36.7 degrees Celsius.
The coming week will be humid with likely thunderstorms every day.
The rain will also bring cool climate with it. The high is expected to fluctuate between 26 and 29 degrees Celsius from today until Thursday. After that, the temperature will be back at 30 degrees and above.
It has been 34 days since the plum rain season began on June 9 and there is no indication it will end soon. In 2019, it lasted 33 days.
The precipitation recorded at the benchmark Xujiahui meteorological center in Xuhui District has reached 395.8 millimeters, 1.6 times the annual average this year, the bureau said on Saturday.
Only two typhoons have formed in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea, which are fewer than usual, the authority said.
The bureau added that one or two typhoons may hit the city in late July.