Disaster alarms have been ringing loudly as the country battles a rare mixture of severe floods and pervasive drought.

A series of rare disasters that historically occur once every several decades have plagued China this year, said officials with the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Tuesday.

Although the current wave of floods has not led to catastrophes along such major rivers as the Huaihe and Yangtze, they have caused enormous losses, said Wang Zhenyao, director of the ministry's Disaster and Social Relief Department.

Floods have claimed 439 lives and injured more than 21,600 so far this year.

Landslides caused by floods have collapsed 275,000 houses and damaged more than 1 million, forcing 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

Floods have ruined some 5.2 million hectares of farmland, mostly in Hunan, Henan and Hubei provinces in central China, and Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south.

"The country has also witnessed extreme weather recently in big cities, such as Beijing's unprecedented rainstorm earlier this month, which paralyzed local transportation," Wang said. "The rainstorm in Shanghai on July 12 can be said to be a very rare disaster that happens only once a century." That storm claimed seven lives.

While floods are inundating some areas, high temperatures and drought have scorched others.

Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in northeast China and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north have been beset by severe drought since the spring. Rain did not begin to fall until July, several months later than normal, meteorologists said.

The drought may be partially responsible for the plagues of migratory locusts and grasshoppers that attacked crops and grasslands earlier this summer. By late June, the infestations had affected 970,000 hectares of farmland in 10 provinces and municipalities and more than 13 million hectares of grassland, half of it in Inner Mongolia.

Continuous drought and heat have nearly depleted water resources in the southern city of Shenzhen, which neighbors Hong Kong. The reservoirs have less than one-third of their total capacity, and the water can last for only a month with normal water supply, officials said.

The State Forestry Administration reported that dryness and heat have contributed to infestations of pests that have attacked about 9 million hectares of forests, primarily in the south, so far this year.

Sizzling weather has dominated major cities in east and southwest China this week. Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Chengdu are likely to see more days with temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius this week, meteorologists warn.

To help ease the disasters, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has earmarked more than 69 million yuan (US$8.3 million) as a disaster relief fund.

More than 3,600 tents have been sent to disaster sites to provide temporary shelter to the victims.

Several ministries and government departments, including the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration, have formed a joint disaster prevention system.

"Disasters like torrential rain, typhoons, mountain torrents, and storm tides are likely to occur throughout China at any moment in the days ahead since the entire country is now in its major flood season," the Beijing-based State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters warned last week.

(China Daily July 28, 2004)