China gears up for disasters as flood season enters ‘critical period’

BEIJING (Reuters) – All of China must prepare for potential disasters as this year’s flood season reaches a pivotal period, a government official warned on Friday, after months of torrential rains and floods, the worst for some in more than a century.

China routinely faces heavy flooding during its summer, but record-breaking rain in some regions this year has highlighted the challenges it faces as it tries to adapt to climate change, with temperatures also reaching fresh highs.

As the “critical period” starting in mid-July approaches, officials at all levels needed to “grasp the potential risks”, Zhou Xuewen, vice minister at China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, told a briefing.

Since the flood season began in March, average rainfall is 10.7% higher than normal, and has doubled in some parts of the south. Rain in the Pearl River basin in the southern province of Guangdong is at its highest on record.

The floods have submerged farmland, interrupted power and communications, affected roads and destroyed homes, with emergency response teams deployed throughout the country to administer relief.

On Thursday morning, firefighters in the flood-hit Guangdong city of Maoming cautiously made their way through deep, murky waters to rescue 14 villagers trapped in their homes, state television showed.

“There is no umbrella for the baby, the baby needs an umbrella!” a firefighter shouted, as other rescuers wrapped a plastic sheet over one of two young children.

Across China this year, as many as 487 rivers have exceeded their flood warning levels, while over 1.2 million people have been evacuated, with direct economic losses hitting nearly 65 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) so far.

Since the start of the flooding season, China has been hit by nine large-scale floods from major rivers, the most since 1998, said an official from the Ministry of Water Resources at the briefing.

Among them, overflows from Beijiang river in the populous Pearl River Basin have led to the biggest floods from the river since 1915, he said.

China has been striving to improve its ability to cope with extreme weather and promised to set up an advanced risk management and prevention system over the next decade.

The country experienced more geological disasters in the first half than the whole of last year, an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources told the briefing.

More “severe challenges” can be expected in the second half, he warned.

($1 = 6.7021 yuan)

(Reporting by Stella Qiu, David Stanway, Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)