River dikes breached in China, thousands affected

BEIJING - Floods caused by heavy rains for the eleventh consecutive day breached three river dikes in Fuhe river in China’s Jiangxi province, forcing the evacuation of over 100,000 people.

Heavy rains and floods have badly affected 10 regions - including Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region - in southern China, leaving 211 people dead and 119 missing, a statement by the ministry of civil affairs said.

They have caused economic loss of around 43.3 billion yuan ($6.36 billion), it said.

The Fuhe river in Fuzhou city breached its banks twice Wednesday, two days after a dike broke on another section of the river, forcing the evacuation of 100,000 people, the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief office said in a statement. The first breach was about 400 metres wide and the others were slightly smaller.

The breaches were expected to be fixed in six days, but continuous heavy rains could undermine the efforts.

“Workers are battling to build a road to transport stones and other materials and we plan to block the breaches in six days,” a spokesman was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The office is aiming to let the evacuees return to their homes July 2, he said.

Meanwhile, a landslide carrying 50,000 cubic metres of debris hit Qingfeng river in Fengcheng city, threatening the safety of 500,000 people in Jiangxi province.

The debris could block the flow and cause a lake, which could easily burst with dire consequences, a spokesman of the Provincial Land and Resources department said.

Baozhuang village in Fujian province was cut off as the only bridge connecting it to outside was damaged, and water, electricity and communications have all been cut by the floods since June 18. More than 400 villagers, including five pregnant women, remained trapped in the village, Zhang Yexing, party head of the village, was quoted as saying.

All schools and kindergartens in Nanping were closed, affecting over 30,000 students, while education authorities postponed the senior high school entrance examination to July 2, even as landslides cut off roads in the province, Shen Qiuping, deputy chief of the municipal education bureau, said.

“We want to make sure that students are safe while sitting the exams. If the flooding persists in July, we may postpone the examination again,” Shen said.

Over 6,000 repairmen were working to restore electricity after it was cut by the torrential rains in the province June 15, and 90 percent of the blackout had been restored by Thursday, a spokesman of the company said.

Flood in the Yangtze river in 1998 led to the death of 3,656 people, while over 230 million people were affected.