Floods and drought continued to play havoc last week, raising
the death toll across the country, with experts blaming the freaky
weather conditions on global warming.
More than 700 people have been killed in floods, landslides,
mudslides and storms across 24 provinces and 82.05 million have
been affected.
The water level in Huaihe River has started receding but
incessant showers continue in the upper and middle reaches of the
Yangtze River.
The Huaihe River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters
said yesterday that the water level at Wangjiaba, a key
hydrological station in the middle reaches of the Huaihe, dropped
slightly below the danger level of 27.5 m on Saturday night. That
was the lowest in 26 days.
But Long Bin, spokesman for Anhui provincial flood control headquarters,
warned that the southern part of the river would still be flowing
above the danger level till early August.
A 100-m stretch of a dam at Huajiahu in Fengtai County of Anhui
in the lower reaches of the Huaihe collapsed on Saturday.
The disaster occurred after 20 days of heavy downpours.
More than 1,000 villagers have been evacuated but no one has
been reported hurt.
Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, has been battered by floods
because of the gushing Yangtze.
Hailstorms and rain claimed 10 lives and injured 300 people in
Hubei in the past two days, and about 1,600 people had to be moved
to safer places.
Last week, heavy rain in mountainous regions of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region caused floods
and triggered landslides, killing more than 90 people, stranding
thousands and hampering the movement of traffic, the Ministry of
Land and Resources (MLR) said.
Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan has asked local governments to
improve their disaster forecast mechanisms and protect life and
property at all costs as more rain and typhoons are forecast for
the coming weeks.
The MLR has sent 14 special teams to help local authorities
handle possible disasters.
There are fears that the death toll in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces could rise with more rain
forecast for the next few days, the Central Meteorological Station
said.
Chinese experts blame the extreme weather conditions on global
warming. Unbalanced distribution of rainstorms, persistent high
temperatures, severe drought and powerful typhoons are all the
result of climate change.
China Meteorological Administration Chief Forecaster Wang
Yongguang said abnormal weather will continue to plague most parts
of China this summer and in the years to come.
About 1.93 million people in South and parts of East China are
facing acute drinking water shortage because of drought.
And about 1.61 million hectares of farmland in Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces don't have irrigation water,
according to the website of the State Flood Control and Drought
Relief Headquarters (SFDH) office.
Wang forecast two or three typhoons in August, saying a mild
typhoon was actually good as a drought relief.
Usually typhoons hit China once or twice every June, and twice
or thrice in July and August.
But till the end of this July, no major one has hit the country.
"That's a clear sign of abnormal weather," he said.
"Heavy rainfall doesn't increase the total precipitation level
because it is distributed unevenly over time and space," he
said.
SFDH data show South and East China have received 50 percent or
more rainfall this summer compared to normal years.
On the other hand, parts of North and Northeast China are in the
grip of drought, considered the most serious in two decades, Xu
Ying, director of the climate change monitoring and analyzing
office of the China Meteorological Administration said.
Ministry of Water Resources officials said surface water in
North China is shrinking fast, resulting in a 12 percent reduction
in the Yellow, Huaihe, Haihe and Liaohe rivers.
Heat waves are sweeping across Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
And Fujian and the Chongqing Municipality have recorded
temperatures above 35 C for 20 consecutive days.
An extreme temperature of 42 C was recorded in Zhejiang in 2003
and Chongqing and Sichuan last year.
(China Daily July 30, 2007)