Explainer | Why are the floods so severe in China this year?
- Worst flooding in decades has affected more than 37 million people and left 141 dead or missing
- Climate change and developments that have reduced the size of freshwater lakes have contributed, according to experts
This summer, tens of millions of people across China have been affected by torrential rains that caused floods and landslides and battered cities and villages in dozens of provinces.
It is the worst flooding to hit China in decades. Heavy rains have lashed 27 of the country’s 31 provinces since June, affecting more than 37 million people and leaving 141 dead or missing, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Monday. Economic losses have been estimated at 86 billion yuan (US$12.3 billion) so far.
By comparison, the Great Flood of 1993 along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries – one of the most costly and devastating floods seen in the United States – resulted in about 50 deaths and 54,000 people being evacuated. Economic losses were put at US$15 billion to US$20 billion.
China’s floods started in the south, in the Guangxi Zhuang region and Guizhou province, in June. Heavy rains have since wreaked havoc across large swathes of the country, including Jiangxi province in the east, Anhui in the southeast and Hubei in the centre, with the emergency response for flood control raised to its highest level in some places.
The scale of the disaster is vast, with the water level of 433 rivers going above the flood control line since June, and 33 of them at record high levels, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.