With Yangtze waters hitting alert levels, full-on bid to prevent floods
Print Edition
Since the rainy season started in June, 54-year-old Tang Jianjun has been patrolling a nearby embankment around the clock to uncover hidden dangers in the city of Yangzhong, east China’s Jiangsu Province.
Although the water level in the Yangtze River, the country’s largest, remains high above the alert level, Tang is feeling less worried about the flooding this year than that in 1998.
Yangzhong, the second-largest island on the Yangtze River, is protected by a 120 kilometer embankment. Local residents consider the embankment their lifeline.
The width and height of the embankment have been raised to 10.05 meters and 6 meters from less than 9 meters and 3 meters respectively since the disastrous flooding in 1998, said Tang, Party chief of Taiping village.
“In addition, we have more flood control materials, large drainage equipment and high-tech devices to mitigate flood damages,” Tang said. “More importantly, local authorities, rescue teams and residents are more united, experienced and meticulous in battling floods.”
As China’s capability of flood control and disaster relief improves, the loss of property and life has dramatically decreased.
Statistics show that the number of people dead or missing due to the floods since July was 82 percent lower than the average for the same period of the past five years, while collapsed houses and direct economic losses dropped 78.3 percent and 5.9 percent respectively, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
In Walong village in the hard-hit province of Anhui that borders the Yangtze River, villagers have been patrolling a 500-meter-long embankment in three shifts a day since early July, using long bamboo sticks or shovels to remove weeds at the bottom of the levee and carefully monitor if there is any water seepage on the ground.
“We will immediately inform the authorities once we find any problems. It is very important because a leakage could result in the crash of the whole embankment,” said Hu Mingzhe, a village official.
A total of 35 rivers and lakes in Anhui, including the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers, have seen water exceed warning levels. The provincial government has activated the highest-level emergency response for flood control due to the grim situation.
Since July 2, continuous heavy rains have affected more than 3.64 million residents and forced the evacuation of 606,000 people in the province.
In Jiangsu, the local flood control authorities have also given priority to embankment patrol, beefing up flood inspection forces in regions plagued by flooding.
Statistics from China’s emergency management authorities show that over 2,500 flood-related risks have occurred in the five provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and all of them have been effectively handled.
To enhance flood prevention, the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu hemmed in by the Taihu Lake, China’s third-largest freshwater lake, has turned to smart flood monitoring systems.
“We have adopted some new technologies for the first time this year,” said Zhang Xiaowen, an official with Wuxi’s flood control and drought relief headquarters. “The decision-making support system at the headquarters integrates data from more than 200 local hydrological stations.”
According to Zhang, the flood and rainfall data is updated every five minutes. “We can also check the data and interact with meteorological departments through a smartphone application, which greatly improves our decision-making efficiency in response to flooding.”
It is a regular task for patrol teams to check if there are potential risks along the embankment during the flood season.
In this year’s flood-fighting, advanced equipment has greatly relieved the stress of patrollers.
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