A partially-submerged cornfield after heavy rain and flooding in the Hukou county of Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, on July 5, 2024. - PHOTO: REUTERS
HONG KONG (Reuters): China's agricultural sector must improve its capacity for disaster prevention and mitigation, Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said on Tuesday, according to the Xinhua news agency, also vowing more financial support to restore output after flooding.
Liu called for strengthening the monitoring of rainfall conditions to provide early warnings and enhancing defense capabilities against water and drought disasters in major water conservancy projects in China's northeastern provinces.
His comments came as he was conducting an investigative trip in Liaoning and Jilin provinces in northeast China, Xinhua said.
Eight rivers in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and the regions of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, along with other areas, experienced floods above the warning level on Aug. 13, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing China's Ministry of Water Resources.
Extreme rainfall in July drenched vast areas such as the Sichuan Basin, Yellow River, Huai River and parts of the North China Plain, breaking precipitation records at 33 weather stations in Henan, Hunan and Shandong provinces.
The severe rainfall and ensuing flooding led to a near doubling in economic losses from natural disasters in July from a year earlier, the government said on Aug. 9.
China suffered 76.9 billion yuan ($10.1 billion) in economic losses from natural disasters last month, with 88% of those losses caused by heavy rains and floods, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
It was the biggest amount of losses for the month of July since 2021, ministry data showed.
Natural disasters during the month affected almost 26.4 million people across China, with 328 either dead or missing. More than one million people were relocated, 12,000 houses collapsed and 157,000 more were damaged. Some 2.42 million hectares (5.98 million acres) of crop area were also affected.
(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christian Schmollinger) - Reuters
