Cities In China Brace For Floods As Heat Scorches Inland Regions

Beijing and other cities braced for severe flooding on Friday as summer storms rolled across many parts of China, while inland regions baked in intense heat, threatening to shrink the country’s biggest freshwater lake.

Historically, China enters its peak rainy season in late July, but extreme weather has made storms more intense and unpredictable, exposing heavily built-up megacities with poor or insufficient drainage to potentially deadly floods.

In Beijing, authorities have deployed more than 2,600 people to drain dozens of pumping stations in advance and clear thousands of water drainage outlets along roads.

Several bus routes plying the suburbs and mountainous areas were halted.

Authorities in the neighbouring city of Tianjin also ramped up flood control efforts in the Hai basin, a major northern drainage system.

By contrast, scant rainfall in Jiangxi province has resulted in Poyang Lake, the country’s largest body of fresh water, ebbing to its lowest level for this time of the year since records began in 1951.

Poyang Lake, known as the kidneys of China due to the role it plays in regulating the flow of the Yangtze river, normally swells in summer due to rain and retreats in winter. Last year, it also unexpectedly shrank due to drought.

The Central Meteorological Observatory on Friday issued warnings for heavy rain in eight provinces and autonomous regions until Saturday evening, according to state media.

Some areas could get short-term heavy downpours with maximum hourly rain of 30 to 60 millimetres (1.2 to 2.4 inches), and more than 70 mm (2.76 inches) in other places, CCTV reported.

The government is taking extra steps to address potential flooding.

At a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang, officials said all localities and relevant departments should put people’s lives first and pay close attention to flood prevention and drought control, state radio reported on Friday.

Meanwhile, temperatures of 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) and above continued to menace other parts of China.

Northwestern Xinjiang, where temperatures hit a record high 52.2C on Sunday, remained blanketed in worse-than-usual heat while in neighbouring Gansu province some areas suffered intense heat while others warned of floods and landslides.