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| China Braces Defenses Against Floods |
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For Wu Jishan, head of the remote Forty-eight families lost their homes and 70 percent of the farmland at Xinchang was destroyed by flooding of the furious "For a village like Xinchang, where the annual income per person is around 2,000 yuan (250 U.S. dollars), the 9-million-yuan economic loss caused by such a destructive flood was unbearable," Wu said. Besides the weather, poor flood defense facilities were blamed for the scale of the devastation. "The dam to safeguard the village, which was built several decades ago, can barely withstand a single blow from a roaring river let alone an unexpected mud-rock flow, " said Wu. The experience of Wu's village is common in the flood-haunted country. Floods kill about 1,500 people and cause huge economic loss in In 2005 alone, 116 cities along the flooding-prone The ability to combat floods of the water conservation projects in many Chinese cities, especially those along the tributaries of the large rivers or around large lakes, remains a big problem as the flood-control facilities have been out of action for years, said Shi Guangqian, deputy director of the headquarters. Most embankments in these areas were built in the 1980s to low standards and have been damaged to different degrees by floods over the past few years, said Shi. In addition, some local governments did not pay due attention to this issue and renovation of the flood-control projects gave way to 'more important things', like industrial development, said Shi. "The flood-control works in some areas are like old men suffering from the passing of years. We have taken actions to cure them, while we should not expect to make them healthy young men in one day," said Shi. Strengthening construction of flood-control system tops the water resources-related work in The Chinese government will invest more than 150 billion yuan (US$18.75 billio) in flood-control projects along the major rivers and large and medium-sized cities and big reservoirs, said Gu Hao, spokesman of the ministry. In addition, a gigantic dyke reinforcement project on the The project, which began in 1999 and cost 30.8 billion yuan (US$3.85 billion), together with the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest water control work on the Yangtze, will free the river from the threat of major floods like the 1998 flooding, said Gu. The city of "We plan to invest 50 million yuan (US$6.25 million) in the project. We are trying to raise more money by attracting investment in the water conservancy works from outside," said Chen. This is definitely good news for the "Once the government funds come, we will try to repair it as soon as possible. We can not withstand any more floods," said Wu Jishan. (Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2006)
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