Society

Rivers struggling to cope as flood crisis deepens

By Zheng Jinran (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-17 07:40

Two villagers look for clothes and other belongings in their house after it collapsed due to heavy rain in Xincheng county of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Thursday. [Photo / Xinhua]

Villagers evacuated after riverbank bursts, 2,000 people safe in emergency settlement

BEIJING - Floodwaters inundated 88 villages along the Puyang River in Zhuji city of East China's Zhejiang province after the river burst its banks on Thursday.

More than 100,000 people were affected by the sudden flood. No casualties had been reported by Thursday night.

The riverbank was breached at 6 am on Thursday and the flood damaged about 13,333 hectares of farmland. About 2,000 residents were evacuated.

Related readings:  Rains batter parts of China, floods spread  Fierce floods ruin crops and livelihoods  Flood hits E China's Zhejiang province  Flood takes village hero, leaves his family in desperate situation

Food and other relief items were delivered to temporary settlements, where the evacuated villagers were settled safely, according to a report by China Central Television (CCTV).

Torrential rains in Zhuji lasted for 10 days in early June, the accumulated rainfall reaching 405 millimeters. The water level in the Puyang River, a major tributary of the Qiantang River, rose to 14.13 meters on Thursday morning, far exceeding the safety level.

As of Thursday night, the major breach of the riverbank had not been blocked but was under close monitoring. Another five minor leaks had been blocked. The water level had dropped by 0.38 meters at 4 pm.

Water levels on the Qiantang River, the largest river in Zhejiang province, and all its tributaries exceeded the safety level at 7 am on Thursday, indicating a great risk of water overflowing, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said.

Lanxi city, located in the middle reaches of the Qiantang River, faces its worst flood since 1992, a local official told CCTV on Thursday.

The recent downpours have also triggered geological hazards.

Part of the Hangxinjing Highway in Hangzhou collapsed due to a rain-triggered landslide on Wednesday. The collapsed part of the road was 80 meters long, 8 meters wide and 15 meters deep. The highway, which links Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province, and Jingdezhen city of Jiangxi province, had to be closed.

More than 77,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in East and Central China, including Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui and Hubei provinces, which have been hit by a new round of rainstorms since Tuesday.

During the past two weeks, 180 people have been either killed or gone missing due to the heavy rain and rain-triggered disasters in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces.

Water levels in about 40 rivers, including the Xiangjiang River in Hunan, had exceeded the warning line by up to 5.56 meters, and more than 10 rivers, including the Shuiyang River in Anhui, exceeded the safety level by as much as 1.87 meters, a statement released on the official website of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in Beijing said on Thursday.

In Hubei province, a lake measuring 100 meters long, 70 meters wide and 35 meters deep formed after debris from a landslide blocked a river in Shiyan, leading to the evacuation of 2,000 residents living downstream.

About 300 residents in a village in Xingbin district of Laibin city, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, were trapped by floodwaters, and by 11 am on Thursday rescuers had not been able to reach them.

Xinhua contributed to this story.