Flooding from the Yellow
River has so far impacted at least 100,000 villagers in Henan and
Shandong provinces.
Over the weekend, the
ministries of finance and civil affairs have teamed up to allocate
10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to fund flood relief work in
Lankao County of central China's Henan
Province and Dongming County of east China's Shandong
Province where the flooding occurred.
The two regions were
also given respectively 500 and 1,000 tents to house flooding
victims.
Due to continuous heavy
rain since mid-August, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow
River have been seen rising water levels and inundated the banks in
Lankao County separately on September 18 and 20.
Despite the efforts of
the local government against the floods in the ensuing days, the
run-off from the Yellow River has submerged 4,000 hectares of
farmland in 17 villages in Lankao County.
Nearly 18,000 people
have suffered from the flooding, and the average water level in the
area is close to one meter in depth.
Statistics showed that
74 bridges and 14 ravines were damaged and a few houses collapsed,
causing direct economic losses of over 56.2 million yuan (US$6.7
million). No injury or death has been reported yet.
Waters from the Yellow
River also continue to flood into Dongming County of
Shandong.
So far, 96,800 people in
130 villages in Dongming have suffered from the flooding, and
12,000 hectares of farmland have been submerged with an average of
1.5 meters of accumulated water.
A team headed by Civil
Affairs Minister Li Xueju arrived at Dongming on Sunday to guide
the rescue work there.
According to Cai
Weichao, deputy head of Dongming County, disaster relief materials
which include 40 tons of flour, 1,000 tents, 4,000 tons of coal and
20 tons of diesel oil have been sent to victims.
The rescue team in
Dongming is now busy transferring villagers out of the flooded
areas. Cai said that local senior citizens without family nearby
had all been transferred to safe areas.
As the water levels in
the flood areas are higher than that of the Yellow River now,
rescue teams have also started to pump the floodwaters back into
the river as of Monday.
(China Daily October 7,
2003)