Fears of disease have followed the devastating floods that
killed over 200 people in the last few days, though reports of
three typhoid cases in the central province of Hunan
were denied by local officials in yesterday's Chongqing Morning
News.
Duan Zhigao, from Shaoyang City's Disease Prevention and Control
Center, said that there had been one case of typhoid in Xinshao
County but that it predated the floods, having been diagnosed on
May 22.
Local governments have stockpiled inoculations to be given free
of charge to flood victims.
The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said
yesterday that no more flood casualties have been reported since it
and the Ministry of Civil Affairs released an updated death toll of
204 and 79 missing on Saturday.
At that time, Vice-Premier Hui
Liangyu, in charge of the headquarters, urged "the full
implementation of all anti-flood and drought measures so that human
casualties and property losses can be mitigated and the safety of
key cities and communication lines guaranteed."
As of last night, 17.1 million people in 16 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions had been affected by floods.
An estimated 1.8 million hectares of arable land has been affected
and 137,900 houses destroyed by the heavy rains and subsequent
landslides.
In stark contrast, some areas, such as southwest China's Yunnan
Province, are suffering from serious drought, with over 6.6 million
hectares of farmland in 11 provinces affected, and 11.1 million
people and 6.4 million livestock experiencing a shortage of
drinking water.
Meteorologists warned that flooding on the middle and lower
reaches of the Yangtze River are likely to worsen in the next ten
days as 220 millimeters more rain is predicted to fall.
Xiao Ziniu, deputy director of the National Meteorological
Center, said "rainstorms will sweep over the provinces of Guizhou,
Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan and the municipality of Chongqing"
this week.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, June 6, 2005)
