As the death toll from the rainstorms and floods triggered by the killer tropical storm Bilis has risen to 198 in China, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Tuesday urged officials to continue their efforts in flood control and disaster relief.

The government regards the current flood control task its top priority and pays great attention to safety of people's life, Hui said during an inspection tour in Hunan Province, the worst-hit province where 92 people have been confirmed dead, more than 100 are missing and 400,000 others are affected.

Hui, also head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, visited several flood-hit counties and cities, calling for continuous efforts in flood control, settlement of affected people and rebuilding of destroyed houses.

The vice premier said storm-ravaged areas still face great challenges, asking governments at all levels to take effective measures to prevent more possible disasters and ensure safety of major rivers and reservoirs in the flooding season.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters have sent a dozen of task forces to check flood prevention and control efforts along major rivers.

Hui, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, warned local officials of their duty in flood control, asking them to take measures against possible spread of epidemics in flood-hit areas.

The vice premier also urged local governments to help farmers restart farming production in disaster-ravaged areas to minimize the damage to crop growth and harvest.

Tropical storm Bilis landed in China last Friday and triggered heavy rainfall and serious floods in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi. More than 1.7 million residents had been evacuated over the past weekend, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Floods and rainstorms also claimed 43 lives in Fujian Province and 44 in Guangdong.

There were no reports of casualties in Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

In Guangdong 1.32 million people have been affected and 4,744 houses were destroyed by the deadly storm.

Water levels at eight large reservoirs in the province have exceeded the flood-control limit with six others approaching the warning line.

The death toll in Guangxi rose to 19 from Monday's nine while eight people were still missing. Meanwhile, 4.495 million people were affected and the economic losses stood at about 890 million yuan (US$111.25 million).

A total of 557 reservoirs in Guangxi were forced to discharge floodwater as torrential rains continued Monday, 333 more than that over the previous day.

In Fujian, 3 million people had been affected by floods, 19,100 houses were destroyed and 519,000 people had been evacuated.

Rainstorms and floods spilt 144,680 hectares of crops and forced 1,865 industrial and mining enterprises to suspend production, resulting in losses of 3 billion yuan (US$375 million) in the province.

The Fujian provincial government has appropriated 4.3 million yuan (US$537,500) for disaster relief and delivered 2,000 quilts, 6,000 boxes of instant noodles and 12,000 tents to victims.

In total, more than 20 million people in China have been affected and economic losses reached 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Economic losses from natural disasters totaled 910.8 billion yuan (US$113.8 billion) over the past five years, the ministry said. That translates into average daily losses of at least 499 million yuan (US$62.4 million).

Heavy rains and severe floods also destroyed many highway and railway sections in south China.

By Tuesday noon, traffic resumed on the flood-ravaged trunk railway linking Beijing and Guangzhou after three days' efforts of more than 5,000 workers to fix the damage, the Guangzhou Railway Group said.

Thousands of passengers were stranded along the route in the past three days.

By 5:30 a.m., railway workers had repaired most damaged sections along the railway and Tuesday morning's trial run of a locomotive from Lechang to Shaoguan, two worst ravaged points, proved successful.

The Ministry of Finance approved 65 million yuan (US$8.125 million) to fund disaster relief efforts in Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has successively activated grade-4 and grade-3 schemes of emergency response to provide relief to the disaster zones.

Climate disasters frequently hit China this summer, killing over 300 people in June while leaving 99 others missing, and causing an economic loss of 20.2 billion yuan (US$2.53 billion), according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

CMA officials said that the most serious climate disasters this summer were rainstorms which caused floods, landslides, mud-rock flow in a dozen of provinces, municipalities and autonomous region in south China.

China suffers floods every year during the rainy season from June to August, during which rivers overflow and water rushes down mountains, often causing deadly landslides.

The first typhoon this year, Chanchu, landed in China on May 18, 40 days earlier than the average date in previous years.

More typhoons or tropical rainstorms will hit China this year partially due to the warm ocean current in the northwestern Pacific and high temperatures in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, according to CMA experts.

CMA data shows that typhoons caused about 23 billion yuan (US$2.88 billion) of economic losses and 440 deaths from 1988 to 2004 in China.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2006)