Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that China can not afford to
make mistakes in its ongoing efforts to combat floods in the
Yangtze River area, because of the potential risk of disaster.
In
his written instructions released on Wednesday, Wen, a member of
the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central
Committee and head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief
Headquarters, urged all local leaders to give top priority to the
issue.
He
called for massive mobilizing of soldiers and civilians to
strengthen their defense of the dikes and embankments along the
country's largest river and at Dongting Lake where water levels are
continuing to rise.
Cities, major transport facilities and people's lives must be
secured, he said.
According to sources with the flood control headquarters, local
officials in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces have been
told to study and implement Wen's instruction.
Currently, more than 870,000 people including 11,000 Army soldiers
and Armed Police officers are defending the dikes and embankments
along the river. So far, no major accidents have been reported.
Fighting Flood Emergency Task
China is again forced to face its worst natural disaster as
sections along middle and lower reaches of its longest waterway -
the Yangtze River - are threatened by this year's severest
flood.
On
Wednesday, an official flood emergency was declared in the central
province of Hunan, which bears the brunt of surging water levels
from its two big rivers, the Zishui and Xiangjiang, as well as
Dongting Lake.
Water has surged past warning signs along more than 1,800
kilometers (1,118.5 miles) of dykes at the lake.
Although experts have ruled out a massive outbreak of floods like
the disaster of 1998 in the Yangtze River valley, Hunan officials
said water levels could match those experienced at the time.
The fact that the flood five years ago was the biggest in a hundred
years and caused heavy damages and economic losses is still fresh
in people's minds.
Abnormal weather conditions, combined with serious ecological and
environmental hurdles that greatly reduced the ability of rivers
and lakes to regulate water, were blamed for the flooding.
Since then, the country's ability to fight flooding has been
enhanced as the central government and flood-prone areas have
invested heavily in projects to control water surges and the
environment.
Nonetheless, alarm bells started ringing earlier this week along
sections of the Yangtze River. The same past problems are suspected
of being the culprit.
For one thing, it is still too early to hope that various
flood-control projects will be successful.
Not to mention that the curbing and restoration of ecological
degradation in the Yangtze River valley may take generations.
Before humans are able to control flooding, prevention work and
social mobilization during the wet season seems to be the only real
way to limit the damage.
(People's
Daily August 23, 2002)