China gears up for battling flood season

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has enhanced flood monitoring and alert and adopted effective measures to mitigate disasters as the country enters the critical period of flood season in the latter half of July and first half of August.

Li Guoying, minister of water resources, stressed in mid-July the importance of prevention and effective measures, adding that China is estimated to face a relatively large number of extreme weather events this year.

In Beijing, heavy rain lashed the city on Thursday night with maximum precipitation reaching 64.8 millimeters. The city issued four alerts as the rainstorm approached.

Local meteorological authorities have forecasted a 10 to 20 percent rise in rainfall this year compared with an average year during the flood season. Four to five days of heavy rain is also expected, with daily precipitation above 25 millimeters, and above the annual average of 3.6 days.

The city has designated over 2,500 teams and 170,000 people in flood prevention and control, according to Liu Bin, deputy head of the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau.

The municipal water authority, for the first time, released a digital map showing the risks of waterlogging across the urban areas in July. The map highlights areas with possible waterlogging risks and actions that can be taken.

In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, floods have occurred in over 38 local rivers since July due to the impact of typhoons and heavy rain. Alerts were issued before all these floods, according to local authorities.

The local water resources departments have adopted new technologies such as drones, unmanned boats, side-looking radar, and laser radar to gather data for flood prevention.

In northeast China's Liaoning Province, heavy rain since late July has resulted in floods in eight cities, affecting around 220,000 people as of July 30. The downpour also led to a breach at a dike in a local river on Monday, with some 6,400 people evacuated.

The central government earmarked 50 million yuan (about 7.4 million U.S. dollars) of central disaster-relief funds on Tuesday to support flood control efforts in the province.

On Friday, the efforts to close the breach was in the final stage, according to local authorities. A dedicated allocation mechanism was put in place to ensure timely and efficient delivery of flood control supplies.

"With these joint efforts, we believe we will overcome the flood soon," said Pei Jian, head of hard-hit Lujia Township.