China allocates more funds to support flood rescue efforts

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China has allocated an additional 848 million yuan (about 118.9 million U.S. dollars) to support local flood rescue efforts, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Tuesday.

The fund, allocated by the MOF and the Ministry of Water Resources, will mainly be used to assist local authorities' rescue work in the country's flood-hit central, eastern, southern, southwestern and northeastern regions, including Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei and Guangdong, according to the MOF.

The MOF will prioritize water facility repair and hidden risk removal efforts.

Early this year, the MOF allocated funds in batches to assist local authorities with disaster relief work.

China's emergency response measures to repair a breach in a dike at Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, have paid off.

The breach in the dike of the country's second-largest freshwater lake was successfully sealed late on Monday and work to drain flooded land and reduce risks are ongoing, according to authorities.

The National Fire and Rescue Administration has dispatched 219 rescue workers and 72 fire-fighting trucks and flood drainage rescue vehicles to Hunan to assist local authorities with rescue operations.