China urges efforts to prevent floods, relieve droughts

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities urged efforts to prevent floods and relieve droughts, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management said Monday.

Typhoon Ma-on, the ninth of the year, is expected to make landfall on the coastal areas of Guangdong Province during the daytime on Thursday, bringing torrential rains to southern parts of the country.

Efforts should be made to closely monitor and guard against the new round of heavy rainfall, the headquarters said while activating a level-IV emergency response in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, and Fujian at noon Monday.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have sent work teams to Sichuan and Chongqing to help with drought relief efforts.

The level-IV response is the lowest in China's four-tier emergency response system.