Country faces grim flood season

With higher precipitation than normal years, the country will confront a grim flood control situation this rainy season as torrential downpours wreak havoc in southern parts of the country, officials said on Thursday.

The accumulated precipitation so far this year has been 6 percent more than the same period in recent years. Following 19 rounds of rainfall, 148 rivers have been stricken by floods that raised water above their warning levels, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Rainfall since June 2, which has engulfed 12 provincial regions, stands out as the strongest. The areas that have received over 40 centimeters of precipitation reach more than 24,000 square kilometers, said Tian Yitang, head of the ministry's flood and drought control and prevention department.

Longtan township in Huizhou, Guangdong province, even received precipitation of over 114 centimeters, he said during a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

According to a media release on Monday from the National Disaster Reduction Center, floods caused by the downpours had left nine dead and another five missing in eight provincial regions, including Hunan and Guizhou provinces. A total of 120,000 people were evacuated.

"A forecast from the meteorological department shows that there will be more precipitation in southern parts of the country this year," Tian said. "The flood control situation will be grim. We have to be prepared for major floods."

Liu Zhiyu, head of the ministry's hydrological monitoring and forecast center, said major floods are expected in five river basins, including the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Xijiang River in the Pearl River Basin. Meanwhile, storm surges may occur in Taihu Lake, the Huaihe River and middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River.

Ye Jianchun, vice-minister of water resources, said the ministry has managed to repair over 99 percent of the roughly 99,600 water conservancy projects that were damaged by floods last year.

"Generally speaking, damaged projects in southern parts of the country have been repaired. ... Due to various reasons, including effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, a few damaged projects have yet to be repaired," he said. "We will ask local authorities to strictly implement flood control measures and ensure safety during the flood season."

Ye said the ministry has dispatched six teams to five provincial regions to guide local flood control work. It will also enhance monitoring and issue warnings in a timely manner while intensifying the coordination of water conservancy projects to help store floodwaters to cope with the grim situation.

However, he said the country still faces challenges in managing its large number of reservoirs and protecting people from mountain torrents during the flood season, and that the ministry has taken a series of measures to address those challenges.

Over 94,000 of the country's 98,000 reservoirs are small. Some of them have become vulnerable and may fail to prevent floods as they are designed. Aside from clarifying people in charge of flood control for all the reservoirs, the ministry has asked these reservoirs to discharge water in advance so that they could help store floodwaters while ensuring safety, he said.

While carrying out online monitoring for the over 4,000 medium and large-sized reservoirs, the ministry has also been rolling out surprise inspections of all reservoirs to ensure they implement flood control measures as required. So far, 11,251 smallsized reservoirs have been visited, he noted.

"We are very worried about mountain torrents, as they usually happen all of a sudden and cannot be effectively prevented with engineering projects," he explained, adding that mountain torrents are to blame for over 70 percent of casualties caused by floods in recent years.

In cooperation with the China Meteorological Administration, the ministry now could issue warnings for 2,076 counties that are prone to mountain torrents.

In addition to asking local authorities to ensure normal operation of the facilities needed to publish and receive the warnings, the ministry has joined hands with the three major telecom operators to send warnings via mobile phones to people in areas with high risks of mountain torrents, he said.