Chinese authorities this Friday intensified emergency measures in response to the serious floods that hit the province of Jiangxi, in the center of the country, leaving 1.56 million people homeless by Thursday night.
Jiangxi’s flood and drought relief departments reported the collapse of houses belonging to 43 families and the flooding of more than 160,000 hectares of farmland, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
Direct economic losses were estimated at 1.86 billion yuan (236 million euros).
Authorities activated the level IV emergency response and the central government sent a team to guide and assist local administrations in relief efforts to ensure the basic needs of affected residents.
The persistence of heavy rains has caused water levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, the longest river in China and the third longest in the world, as well as in lakes Poyang and Dongting, to continue to rise. .
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said this week that the country faces an increased risk of natural disasters this month and a “serious and complex situation” as it enters the flood period.
The eastern, central, southwestern and northwestern areas of the country may face a high risk of geological catastrophes, while in the northern and northeastern regions of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, the possibility of forest fires will be high.
In some areas of southeast, central-south and southern China, droughts could occur, the institution warned.
In recent weeks, heavy rains have caused the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in provinces such as Anhui (east) and Guangdong (southeast).
In recent summers, meteorological disasters have caused great damage in the Asian country: last year’s summer was marked by floods with more than 30 deaths in Beijing, while in 2022 several waves of extreme heat and Droughts have hit central and eastern China.
In July 2021, rains of unprecedented intensity in decades caused around 400 deaths in the province of Henan, in the center of the country, in a disaster that the Chinese Government attributed to a “lack of preparation and perception risk management” by local authorities.
