China Puts Summer Flood Death Toll at 1,138
Date: 29-Aug-07
Country: CHINA
BEIJING - Stronger relief efforts helped
limit damage and loss of life from droughts and flooding in
China this summer, but floods still killed more than 1,100
people, officials said on Tuesday.
Torrential rain has inundated large swathes of China's
east, south and southwest since June despite a smaller number
of typhoons and tropical storms so far this year, while a
prolonged heatwave and drought have afflicted several eastern
provinces.
"The climate has been abnormal and has caused serious
flooding and drought in our country this year," Vice Minister
of Water Resources E Jingping told a news conference.
The flood death toll of 1,138, last updated on Monday, was
down about 50 percent from the average for the same period of
previous years, E said.
Improved early warning and evacuation, stronger dykes and
timely flood water diversion had reduced human losses and
damage to property, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said.
But 310 million Chinese, mostly peasants in the vast and
vulnerable countryside where harvests and houses were
destroyed, have been affected by natural disasters so far this
year.
The Huai River, China's third longest, suffered its worst
flood since 1954 in July, displacing hundreds of thousands of
wheat farmers for nearly a month.
The cities of Chongqing in the southwest and Jinan in the
north were also hit by the most intensive downpours in history,
causing dozens of deaths in street flooding and prompting
Chinese media to question the government's response.
The flood season was not over yet and still posed a grave
threat, while 37,000 of China's 85,000 dams had "ailments and
dangers", Chen warned.
"The bulk of the ageing dams were built between the 1950s
and 1970s, with the problems of inherent design defects and
poor maintainence. The danger is outstanding," Chen said.
Separately, landslides, floods and lightning killed 17
people in the southwestern province of Sichuan in the past few
days, Xinhua news agency said.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs has allocated 165 million
yuan (US$21.83 million) to five southern and eastern provinces to
help the flood-hit residents, Xinhua said.
(US$1=7.559 Yuan)
