People in flood-stricken east China's Anhui Province will benefit
from a 78 million yuan (US$9.4 million) aid package announced
yesterday by the Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu, who inspected the anti-flood
campaign in Anhui on Sunday urged the local governments have been
urged to guarantee food, accommodation and medical services for
people affected by the floods.
From the beginning of this year, the central government has spent a
total of 801 million yuan (US$96.5 million) to support nationwide
efforts fighting floods and droughts.
A
seventh dyke on the rain-swollen Huaihe River was blown up
yesterday to divert flood waters and protect the industrial city of
Bengbu in northern Anhui.
The demolition yesterday morning drained some of the river's waters
into a diversion area from which 11,130 villagers had been
evacuated, said Wang Qiang, spokesman for the Anti-Flood Command
Headquarters for Anhui Province.
The Huaihe River was 1.23 meters above its danger level on Sunday
evening and was 35 centimeters above its past record high.
Anhui and Jiangsu, another province in East China, have become the
main victims of the Huaihe River which began to see continuous
rainfall from late June.
A
total of 378,900 people have been moved out of the areas that were
flooded in order to lower the river level, Wang said.
Among the evacuated, 275,500 have sought shelter with relatives and
friends, 57,600 are living in State housing, 25,100 in tents, and
20,077 in temporary shelters, according to the provincial civil
affairs department.
The Huaihe River has 15 more flood diversion areas that can be used
if the flooding danger worsens, Wang said.
The rainfall on the Huaihe River will decline today, continuing its
good trend from Sunday, but flood preparation must be stepped up
during the respite, said Cheng Dianlong, deputy director of the
Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief
Headquarters.
To
date, no major threats to embankments along the mainstream of the
Huaihe River have emerged, but 700 minor incidents have threatened
dykes around flood division areas, which are now all under
control.
The number of flood fighters along the Huaihe River has increased
to 870,000 on Sunday from 760,000 on Saturday.
Officials also warned that as China has entered into a flood period
across the country, close attention should be paid to the flood
situation on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Songhua
River in Northeast China, two rivers that brought heavy flood
disasters to China in 1998.
(China Daily July 8, 2003)