This year's flood situation in China is no more severe than the
average year and far better than in 1991 and 1998, an official
disaster report said Friday.
The report released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that some
569 people have been killed during the year's floods and direct
economic losses of 39.87 billion yuan (about US$4.8 billion) have
been caused.
As
of July 10, 9.559 million hectares of farmland had been affected
and some 1.458 million hectares had suffered total crop
failure.
The normal lives and production of nearly 140 million people has
been affected, with 51,000 people struck ill or injured and 2.292
million people having been evacuated.
The ministry did not give losses from previous years, but according
to reports, in 1998, more than 2,000 people were killed in seasonal
floods.
As
the rainfall along the Huaihe River Valley still continues, the
flood situation in Hubei and Hunan Provinces along the lower
reaches of the Yangtze River is deteriorating fast, posing a great
challenge to the country's emergency rescue capabilities, said the
report.
Currently, the ministry has provided 35,000 tents and cooperated
with the Ministry of Finance to allocate a total of 110.9 million
yuan in relief funds (about US$13.36 million) to the 11 flood-hit
regions of Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou,
Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Guizhou and Chongqing.
Most of the casualties were caused by landslides and mud-rock flow
in the hilly areas of Guizhou Province and Chongqing
Municipality.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2003)
