ACT member Amity Foundation reports that violent rainstorms
have repeatedly hit ten provinces along the Huai River and the southern
part of China since late June causing fatal landslides and serious
flooding in many parts of Hubei, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Zhejiang,
Hunan and Sichuan provinces. The storms were so heavy in some areas
that rainfall reached between 130 and 250 millimetres in just one
hour and in Herfeng County, Hubei Province, rainfall reached 342 millimetres.
Official statistics on 30 June report that 44,757,000 people have
been affected of which 28,040,000 seriously. Homes, roads, communications,
irrigation, and power supply facilities in many parts of the affected
areas were either destroyed or seriously damaged. Economic losses
are estimated at US$ 870 million.
Since the beginning of July rainfall has continued in parts of the
southern provinces, chiefly focusing on the four provinces of Hubei,
Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu along the Huai River, causing the worst
flooding in the Huai River areas since 1991.
Xinhua China’s official news agency reported that in Anhui,
where the river Huai was reported to be 1.2 metres above the danger
level, villagers were moved to safe areas while authorities blew holes
in dykes on the river to lower the water levels. In Anhui Province
alone 400,000 people have been evacuated while another 150,000 have
had to leave their homes to take shelter in tents or make-shift shelters
on the dykes. More than 5,700 villages in the province have been inundated
and 1.15 million people cut off from assistance.
Fuel, food, medicine, water purifiers and quilts are among the most
needed items. The central government has allocated relief funds for
Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces – the most seriously affected.
In Anhui Province, over 400 medical teams have been sent to the flooded
areas, medicine and water purifiers worth 500,000 yuan (USD60,407)
have been distributed to the affected people.
Further heavy rain has been forecast for the coming days. Amity
is monitoring the situation and will keep the ACT CO informed.
