As many as 33 rivers in China have risen to their highest levels in history during the current wave of floods, a senior government official said yesterday, as regions across the country brace for another “grim” week of torrential rain.
Chinese Vice Minister of Water Resources Ye Jianchun (葉建春) told a briefing that 433 rivers — as well as major lakes such as the Dongting, the Poyang and the Tai — have all risen beyond their warning levels since the flood season began last month.
“Going into the key flood-prevention period of late July to early August, the current trends remain grim on the Yangtze and the Lake Tai basins,” he said, adding that the belts of heavy rain that have lashed central China would eventually head north.
Photo: AFP
Average rainfall has been at its highest since records began in 1961.
The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management on Friday said that 141 people were dead or missing, with economic losses at about 60 billion yuan (US$8.57 billion).
Flood-control authorities throughout the Yangtze basin have already declared “red alerts” that cover major population centers such as Xianning, Jiujiang and Nanchang.
A red alert has also been declared at Lake Poyang, where water levels are more than 3m higher than normal, another record high.
In some flood-stricken regions, soldiers filled sandbags to shore up riverbanks and stave off more damage. Town streets were inundated and rescue workers waded through hip-deep water with inflatable boats to reach people trapped in homes turned into islands.
Warning levels were breached at more than 70 flood-monitoring stations yesterday, flood ministry data showed.
Water levels at the Three Gorges reservoir, which cut its discharge volumes for a fifth time on Saturday to ease downstream water levels, have now hit 153.2m, 6.7m higher than the warning level.
China’s weather bureau said that although some regions in the southwest would see a temporary respite from the heavy rain yesterday, central and eastern China would continue to bear the brunt of the storms.
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