Thousands of peasants have no food for the coming year after early floods devastated harvests across several provinces, an aid worker has warned.
International Red Cross official Marjut Helminen said: 'The floods happened right before the harvest, meaning that in addition to loss of their homes and personal belongings, tremendous numbers of people have no food for the coming year or crops to start replanting.'
Ms Helminen said providing food to disaster-stricken provinces was the top priority, followed by water purification tablets and powder for areas where fresh water had been contaminated by sewage.
She said that while the Government had implemented flood warning systems and strengthened banks along the Yangtze River and other flood-prone areas, this year's disaster was particularly harsh because it hit areas ravaged by drought.
'While the human effects of flooding are smaller and smaller, the flooding in typically drought-ravaged areas means that people are experiencing a tremendous amount of psychological suffering,' Ms Helminen said.
The federation has appealed for five million Swiss francs (HK$26 million) to help provide disaster relief in nine provinces. Responding to the Red Cross Society of China's urgent requests for food, water, temporary shelter, medicine, quilts and clothing, the international federation has already offered 200,000 Swiss francs to Sichuan, Shaanxi, Fujian, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Jiangxi provinces and Chongqing City.
