2023-08-18 07:28:34
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for measures to mitigate the effects of disastrous flooding this year, which killed dozens of people and extensively damaged crops, homes and infrastructure, including in the capital. , Beijing, and its vicinity.
At least 90 rivers have exceeded alert levels and 24 have already overflowed, according to state media, threatening to flood a vast area of the northeast of the country, including the Songliao basin north of the capital, stretching more than of 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles) and almost 100 million inhabitants.
“As China continues to experience its main flood season, storms, floods, typhoons and other disasters continue to occur frequently in many places across the country,” the official Xinhua news agency said, summarizing the conclusions of the meeting held by the Thursday the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party, chaired by Xi.
The attendees “urged relevant localities and departments to always prioritize people’s safety and property, and continue to do a good job in flood prevention and disaster response,” Xinhua added.
The reinforcement of dams and the efficient use of disaster relief funds to “repair damaged infrastructure such as transportation, communications and electricity, and restore agricultural land and facilities” is crucial, he said.
Schools, hospitals, and nursing homes must immediately return to operation and homes must be repaired immediately “to ensure that affected residents can return to their homes or move to new ones before winter.”
This year, flooding has also affected large parts of the center and east of the country, both in the semitropical south and in the northern plains.
Much of China is experiencing a particularly wet summer, and 142 people died from flooding in July, and dozens more this month.
Forecasters warned of thunderstorms, strong winds and hail in parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and in Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian in the center and southeast.
Residents have been asked to reduce their outdoor activity and seek shelter.
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