Heavy rains in recent weeks have triggered severe flooding and landslides across much of southern China, damaging homes, crops and roads.
10 people were killed and three are still missing in Hunan province this month, with 286,000 people evacuated and a total of 1.79 million residents affected, officials said at a news conference on Wednesday.
More than 2,700 homes have collapsed or been badly damaged, and 96,160 hectares of crops have been destroyed – heavy casualties for a province that serves as a major rice-growing center for China. Direct economic losses are estimated at more than 4 billion yuan ($600 million), according to officials.
Late last month, floods and landslides killed eight people in coastal Fujian province, five people in southwestern Yunnan province and two children swept away by torrents in Guangxi province.
Chinese authorities are on high alert for this year’s flood season, which began this month after devastating floods from unprecedented rains killed 398 people in central Henan Province last summer.
Summer floods are a regular occurrence in China, particularly in the densely populated agricultural areas along the Yangtze River and its tributaries. But scientists have warned for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more common.
Global warming has already intensified extreme rainfall in the East Asian region, which includes southern China. The intensity and frequency of extreme rain events are projected to increase as the earth warms, according to the latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The number of strong tropical cyclones has also increased.
Henan, traditionally not a region regularly hit by floods, experienced what authorities described as “once in a thousand years” downpour at some weather stations last July. prepared for the flood. City officials failed to heed the five consecutive red alerts for torrential rain – which should have prompted authorities to halt gatherings and suspend classes and businesses. Floodwater poured into the tunnels of the city’s subway system, trapping hundreds of passengers and killing 12 of them.
The tragedy gripped the nation, raising questions about how well prepared Chinese cities are for extreme weather conditions.
Ahead of this year’s flooding season, Chinese authorities had warned that a large number of “extreme weather events” were expected to hit the country. Extreme torrential rains are likely to hit the southern and southwestern parts of the country, as well as southern Tibet, according to China’s National Climate Center. In April, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission urged Chinese cities to learn from the Zhengzhou disaster and do their best to face the “acute impact of extreme weather events” this year prevent flooding in cities.