The remnants of Typhoon Haikui drenched southern China for a third day since making landfall, and airports in Guangdong province cancelled hundreds of flights due to stormy weather on Thursday though winds had weakened.

Although storm clouds moved westward towards Guangdong, one of the country’s richest provinces, more downpours were still forecast for the southeastern province of Fujian, where state media reported economic losses had reached 5.054 billion yuan ($690.81 million) since the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday.

In Guangdong’s capital Guangzhou, Baiyun Airport, one of the busiest in China, cancelled 316 flights and delayed 271, according to flight tracking app Flight Master. Shenzhen’s Baoan Airport cancelled 176 flights and delayed half of its flights while Zhuhai’s Jinwan Airport cancelled 91 and delayed 74.

Torrential rain reportedly led to rivers overflowing in the Guangdong town Tangxi, and some villages suffered severe waterlogging. Over 350 people, including elderly, women and children were relocated from low-lying areas, according to state media.

The China Meteorological Administration forecast rainstorms in central and eastern Guangdong, the southern part of Jiangxi province, southern areas in Hunan province, the northeastern areas of the Guangxi region, and the central part of the island of Hainan, while northern parts of Guangdong and the southeastern coast of the province were expected to be hit harder.

Later this week, the storms are expected to continue in Guangxi bringing the southwestern region extreme rainfall on Friday and Saturday before potentially dissipating on Sunday. Authorities issued warnings of mountain torrents and geological disasters for the cities of Guilin, Laibin, Guigang and Wuzhou.

Flooding in parts of Fujian province during the past two days forced the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people and damaged more than 2,500 homes.

Almost 10,000 hectares (24, 710 acres) of crops in Fujian were inundated.

Intense rains in the city of Fuzhou shattered 12-year-old rainfall records, surpassing the amount brought by Typhoon Doksuri late July.

Around six billion tonnes of sand is dredged from the world’s oceans every year, endangering marine life and coastal communities, the UN says.

Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water and is used to produce concrete and glass.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said some vessels were acting as vacuum cleaners, dredging both sand and micro-organisms that fish feed on.

This means that life may never recover in some areas.

The new data coincides with the launch of a new analysis tool called Marine Sand Watch that monitors dredging activities using marine tracking and artificial intelligence.

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“The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming,” said Pascal Peduzzi, who heads UNEP’s analytics centre GRID-Geneva.

The new platform estimates that out of some 50bn tonnes of sand and gravel used by humanity each year, an average of six billion tonnes come from the world’s oceans and seas.

This is the equivalent of “more than one million dump trucks every day”, Mr Peduzzi said.

The marine environment must be given time to recover, he said, adding that “it’s not sustainable”.

Large vessels were “basically sterilising the bottom of the sea by extracting sand and crunching all the microorganisms that are feeding fish”, Mr Peduzzi said.

Sometimes the sand is dredged to the bedrock, meaning marine life may never recover, he added.

The UNEP recommended that sand dredging should also be banned from beaches to protect coastal resilience and economies.

Sand is essential for constructing buildings, roads, hydroelectric dams and solar panels. It can also play an important environmental role, protecting communities from rising sea levels.

The South China Sea, the North Sea and the US east coast are among the areas where the most dredging has occurred, the report states

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved an upwards price increase in the price of pre paid electricity meters in the country.

In a circular signed and dated 5 September 2023 by the commission’s Chairman and Commissioner Legal, Licencing and compliance, Sanusi Garba and Dafe Akpeneye, respectively, it stated that a single phase pre paid meter would now cost N81,975.16k from the N58,661.69k while three phase pre paid meters is increased to N143,836.10k from N109,684.36k.

The circular said the new price was to ensure a fair and reasonable pricing of meters to both MAPs and end-use customers.

“Ensure MAP’s ability to recover reasonable costs associated with meter procurement and maintenance while ensuring that their pricing structure allows for a viable return on investment. Evaluate the affordability of meter services for consumers, aiming to prevent excessive pricing that could burden end-users. Ensure that MAPs are able to provide meters to end-use customers in the prevailing economic realities.