Chinese floods recede for now
Swollen rivers that have flooded parts of southern and eastern China, killing at least 567 people and displacing 2.5 million, have sunk back below warning levels.
But according to state media on Sunday, forecasts for the next few days indicate rain and more flooding – particularly along the Xijiang river.
The Xijiang has already inundated farmland and flooded houses in the city of Wuzhou up to their roofs, Xinhua news agency said.
This year’s floods have killed 567 people, left 165 missing, forced the emergency relocation of 2.46 million people across the country and caused direct economic losses of $2.77 billion, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Water in most sections of the Xijiang river, which runs through Guangdong and Guangxi, and in the Minjiang river and its tributaries, in the coastal eastern province of Fujian, had dropped below warning lines, Xinhua said.
“Flood control work, however, is still tough in these areas,” said E Jingping, general secretary of the office and vice-minister of water resources.
Rain expected
Guangxi was expecting moderate to heavy rainfall in the coming days which might “pose new challenge for flood control in Xijiang”, Xinhua added.
On Sunday, thousands of people in Wuzhou, some 350km west of Hong Kong in the region of Guangxi, thronged the streets to bid farewell to People’s Liberation Army troops who had come in to help rescue people and fight flooding.
A witness said much of the eastern part of the city was still flooded, in some cases up to the second storey of buildings, and electricity had not been restored.
People traversed the inundated streets in boats and rafts. In Guangxi, more than 300 medical teams and “epidemic prevention teams” were dispatched to flood-hit areas along with 20 tonnes of disinfectant and pesticide, Xinhua said.
In the province of Guangdong, more than 1.33 million people had been mobilised to fight the floods.