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National Flood Warning System Floated
A plan has been unveiled to deal with natural disasters caused by heavy rain, which have killed 555 people in China in recent months, as is reported by Chinadaily Wednesday.
Sun Wensheng, vice-minister of land and resources, said Tuesday rain had caused numerous landslides and mudslides. He blamed these for the high death toll.
In Northwest China's Shaanxi Province alone, 212 people have been killed.
Normally, China's southern areas can expect flooding as early as April. By late July, almost all Chinese regions will have more rain, which usually lasts until the end of September.
"We have to be most careful at the end of the rainy season because that is when the ground is at its wettest," Sun said.
According to forecasts made by the Central Meteorological Observatory, regions south of the Yangtze River and the western part of Southwest China will have more rainfall this month than in previous years.
So will the southern part of North China, the western part of the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, northern Northeast China, and the central part of Northwest China.
Floods are forecast for these areas.
Sun urged relevant departments and local officials to be on the alert and adopt effective measures to prevent flooding.
"We have successfully saved over 2,000 people just by taking proper measures this year," he said.
For instance, in June, a teacher at Anjiu Middle School, in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian Province, found a widening crack in the mountain overlooking the school.
The teacher, who was previously part of a flood monitoring team, sent out a warning and there was just enough time to evacuate students and teachers before a landslide buried the school.
In addition to ordering co-operation between the ministry's local branches and the meteorological and water conservancy authorities in all affected areas, Sun said it was time to take more initiatives.
The ministry has begun to ask all county-level regions to look at possible problems that could occur from flooding in their areas.
While the ministry wants any potential problems to be monitored and relief programmes to be drawn up, not all local governments have carried this out.
The provincial land and minerals administrations of Guizhou, Jiangxi and Jiangsu have already pledged to do more.
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