Flood control is about to enter a critical period
17 key provinces do a good job in the investigation and rectification of hidden dangers
This year, my country entered the flood season early, with many torrential rains and heavy local disasters. Based on the prevention of major floods, the prevention of major risks, and the relief of major disasters, all localities and departments make various emergency preparations in advance, pay close attention to various flood control and disaster relief measures, and quickly organize emergency rescue and disaster relief efforts to minimize casualties and property losses.
On July 8, at the regular policy briefing of the State Council, relevant persons in charge, such as the Secretary General of the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, Zhou Xuewen, Deputy Minister of the Emergency Management Department and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, introduced the specific situation.
Zhou Xuewen introduced that this year’s rain, flood and disasters mainly have the characteristics of “three more, three heavy, and one fall”. First, there are many heavy rainfall processes. Since the beginning of the flood season, there have been 18 regional heavy rain events in my country, and the rainfall in Guangdong and Guangxi is the largest since meteorological records. Second, there are many super-alarm rivers. 487 rivers across the country experienced floods above the warning level, 13 rivers experienced the largest floods ever recorded, two major floods occurred in the Pearl River, and two major floods occurred in the Beijiang River. Third, there are many engineering dangers. There are 11 small and medium-sized reservoirs in Hunan, Guangdong and other places in danger. Fourth, the disasters suffered heavy losses and the casualties dropped significantly. Since the beginning of this year, flood disasters have affected 21.805 million person-times, with a direct economic loss of 64.76 billion yuan. Floods caused 40 deaths and missing persons, a decrease of more than 70% compared with the average of the same period in the past five years.
“Since the flood season began on March 17, the average precipitation has been 280.6 mm, which is 10.7% higher than the same period of the previous year and the highest in the history since 2017. The rainfall shows the characteristics of two rainy belts in the north and south. In the south, the Pearl River Basin has the highest rainfall. The precipitation is the largest in the same period in history; in the north, the precipitation in the Liaohe River Basin is the second largest in the same period in history.” said Wang Yawei, head of the Emergency Disaster Reduction and Public Service Department of the China Meteorological Administration.
Zhou Xuewen introduced that the National General Administration of Flood Control announced 2,288 administrative responsible persons for flood control and drought relief across the country, requiring responsible persons at all levels to implement various measures for flood control and disaster relief. At the same time, supervision and inspections were carried out in 17 key provinces in the seven major river basins, and the investigation and rectification of hidden dangers were carried out. The National Defense General Administration also initiated 10 emergency responses for flood control and typhoon control, and the National Disaster Reduction Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management initiated 5 emergency responses for disaster relief, dispatched working groups and expert groups to the front line to assist and guide, and jointly with the National Grain and Material Reserve Bureau to emergency dispatch to the disaster area About 24.79 million yuan of central flood control rescue and disaster relief materials. Since the beginning of this year, 1.239 million people have been urgently relocated and resettled due to floods. The basic livelihood of the affected people has been properly guaranteed, and most of them have returned to their homes.
Yao Wenguang, director of the flood and drought disaster prevention department of the Ministry of Water Resources, introduced that the Ministry of Water Resources announced the safety responsible persons for 719 large reservoirs and dams before the flood season, urging all localities to implement the “three responsible persons” for flood control of small and medium-sized reservoirs. In addition, highlight the dispatch of flood control projects. A total of 2,160 (times) large and medium-sized reservoirs were dispatched and used across the country to contain floods, reducing flooding in 910 (times) cities and towns, and avoiding the transfer of 5.06 million (times) of personnel.
Wang Zhihong, director of the Urban Construction Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced the list of persons responsible for drainage and waterlogging safety in 692 cities across the country. On-site guidance on drainage and waterlogging prevention work in nearly 50 cities in each province. As of July 7, 52 cities across the country had experienced 73 waterlogging of varying degrees due to heavy rainfall. No deaths were caused by urban waterlogging, and lifeline projects such as urban water supply and gas supply were basically normal.
Yu Haifeng, director of the Geological Exploration Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that the Ministry of Natural Resources launched five geological disaster prevention responses in the first half of the year, and dispatched 67 groups and 238 expert working groups to relevant provinces to strengthen technical guidance. More than 20,000 universal monitoring and early warning equipments newly built this year will be fully put into operation before the flood season, enhancing the technical defense capability.
At present, the national flood control work is about to enter a critical period of “seven down and eight ups”. It is expected that from July to August, there will be more rainfall in northern China, southern China, southwest China and other places, and flood disasters will be heavy. Not optimistic.
Zhou Xuewen said that it is necessary to urge all localities to establish and improve the five-level flood control guarantee responsibility mechanism of the province, city, county, township and village. All levels of prevention and control should organize cross-departmental joint rolling consultations, and implement a disaster-response mechanism that directly reaches the responsible person at the grassroots level. For key parts and weak links, pre-set emergency rescue forces in advance. The transfer of danger should be highlighted as early as possible, and efforts should be made to avoid casualties. Disaster relief and assistance should be emphasized and meticulous to ensure that the affected people have food, clothing, clean water to drink, safe shelter, and timely medical treatment if they are sick.
Read more
Editor in charge: Li Yijia, Lai Xuhua