China gears up for disasters as flood season enters ‘critical period’

Interesting remarks from the Chinese Govt on the potential for disastrous flooding in the country

As the “critical period” starting in mid-July approaches, officials at all levels needed to “grasp the potential risks”, Zhou Xuewen, vice minister at China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, told a briefing.

Across China this year, as many as 487 rivers have exceeded their flood warning levels, while over 1.2 million people have been evacuated, with direct economic losses hitting nearly 65 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) so far.

Since the start of the flooding season, China has been hit by nine large-scale floods from major rivers, the most since 1998, said an official from the Ministry of Water Resources at the briefing.

Among them, overflows from Beijiang river in the populous Pearl River Basin have led to the biggest floods from the river since 1915.

Wide-scale flooding of China’s agricultural areas, as well as causing huge direct human impact, will put increased pressure on the global food supply/inflation situation, which is already creeking at the silos*

*see what I did there?

More on this can be found on the FREE Reuters feed, on my very own PiQ Suite news dashboard

Yeah, you better believe that was a shameless plug!