The Chinese government yesterday allocated 120 million yuan
(US$15 million) of funding to help provinces recover from natural
disasters.
Zhejiang and
Fujian provinces were hit by Typhoon Saomai and
Hubei,
Chongqing,
Sichuan,
Shaanxi and
Gansu have suffered severe droughts. The funding is being
allocated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of
Finance.
Typhoon Saomai, the most powerful to hit China in 50 years,
slammed into Cangnan County of Wenzhou City in Zhejiang, at 5:25 PM
last Thursday. It was later downgraded to a tropical depression
after causing huge economic losses running into millions of
dollars.
The storm took the lives of 319 people by 10 PM on Tuesday when
24 bodies were found in Fuding City of Fujian.
In the meantime, searing heat and drought have hit other parts
of China and the weather pattern is forecast to continue. Gansu,
Ningxia, Shaanxi and
Inner Mongolia in north and northwest China have been affected
by droughts in the past few days. The Yangtze, China's longest
river, has also been affected with water in many sections of the
river at their lowest ever levels.
Weather forecasts offer little hope of rainfall in the next few
days in the upper and middle reaches of the river including
Sichuan, Hubei and Chongqing. The temperatures in Chongqing hovered
around 41 degrees Celsius yesterday while in Changsha, central
China's
Hunan Province, temperatures were expected to hit 39 degrees
yesterday.
The extreme conditions have also affected the drinking water
supplies of 7.8 million people in Chongqing and Hunan Province. And
more than 7.5 million people in 40 counties in Chongqing are living
with drinking water restrictions since a severe drought started in
mid May.
On Sunday after a power cut led to equipment failure the water
supply was shut off in Huaihua City of Hunan, leaving about 150,000
people -- 40 percent of the local population -- without water for
three days.
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2006)