China facing “extremely severe and complex” flood situation in decades affecting around a million people

China is facing “extremely severe and complex” flood situation caused by incessant rainfalls which has affected around a million people in different parts of country.

Terming this a ‘once-in- a-century’ flood situation, state media reported that extreme weather, likely caused by climate change, has plagued China, ranging from a heat wave of up to 40 degree Celsius in the northern part of the country to heavy floods in large parts of southern China, with some 85 rivers nationwide exceeding alert levels.

Persistent heavy rains have continued to batter parts of China, swelling rivers, triggering landslides and prompting the relocation of people in recent days. For several days, continuous heavy rainfall has hit a large area in southern China with the Pearl River basin seeing the continuous rise in the water levels of its main rivers including the Xijiang and Beijiang rivers. In Guangdong Province, downpours have triggered floods and landslides and 1,729 houses are collapsed.

Around 479,600 people in cities including Shaoguan, Heyuan and Meizhou had been affected by the rainfall. The direct economic loss so far is estimated at over 1.7 billion yuan. Pearl river basin which is a manufacturing and trade hub in south China is again facing a worsening situation of emergency workers, with manufacturing and supply chains hit even as it could not recover from Covid-19-related restrictions.

Around 485,000 residents were affected by lingering rain in East China’s Jiangxi Province. Heavy rain and floods had affected 43,300 hectares of crops with direct economic losses from the floods reaching 470 million yuan (about 70.3 million U.S. dollars). Torrential rains have also battered the neighboring Hunan Province since Friday. More than 250,000 people had been affected by rainstorms in Hunan. Heavy precipitation has resulted in the collapse of 94 houses, forcing 51,143 local residents to relocate, and damaged more than 21,607 hectares of crops in the province.

According to one report, China suffered the world’s second-worst losses from floods in 2021 at about $25 billion, behind Europe’s $41.8 billion of damage. State media reported around 113 rivers in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong Province, Central China’s Hunan Province, East China’s Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces were flooded. Among them, seven rivers recorded the biggest floods on record, according to China’s Ministry of Water Resources.