Chinese authorities on Friday stepped up emergency measures in response to severe flooding in central Jiangxi province, leaving 1.56 million people homeless by Thursday evening.
Jiangxi’s flood and drought relief departments reported that homes belonging to 43 families had collapsed and more than 160,000 hectares of farmland had been inundated, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
Direct economic losses were estimated at 1.86 billion yuan (236 million euros).
Authorities activated level IV emergency response and the central government sent a team to guide and assist local administrations in relief efforts to ensure the basic needs of affected residents.
Heavy and persistent rains have caused water levels to continue to rise in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, China’s longest river and the world’s third-longest, as well as in Poyang and Dongting lakes.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said this week that the country faces a higher risk of natural disasters this month and A “serious and complex situation” as we enter the flood season.
The country’s eastern, central, southwestern and northwestern regions may face a high risk of geological disasters, while in the northern and northeastern regions of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, the possibility of forest fires will be high.
Droughts may occur in some areas of southeastern, central-southern and southern China, the agency warned.
In recent weeks, Heavy rains forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in provinces such as Anhui (east) and Guangdong (southeast).
In recent summers, weather disasters have caused great damage in the Asian country: last year’s summer was marked by floods with more than 30 deaths in Beijing, while in 2022 several extreme heat waves and droughts hit central and eastern China.
In July 2021, unprecedented rainfall caused around 400 deaths in central Henan province, in a disaster that the Chinese government attributed to a “lack of preparedness and risk perception” by local authorities.
Source: Observadora
