Dam breach triggers floods in central China
ENVIRONMENT
Published: 04:07 PM,Jul 06,2024 | EDITED : 08:07 PM,Jul 06,2024
Workers attempt to repair a breach in the embankment on the shore of Dongting lake in Huarong county, in China's central Hunan province. - AFP
Chinese officials raced to stem floods caused by a dam breach in central China, state media reported, as the Asian nation grapples with a summer of extreme weather.
State news agency Xinhua said the breach occurred on Friday afternoon in part of an embankment on the shore of Dongting Lake in central China's Hunan province.
No casualties were immediately reported but the 226-metre breach forced nearly 6,000 people to evacuate from nearby areas, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
It published footage showing lake water flowing through a yawning gap in a dyke, inundating farmland and lapping at the rooftops of village homes.
The country's road monitoring centre said Saturday traffic controls had been imposed on all roads leading in and out of Hunan's Huarong county -- home to around half a million people -- 'due to flood prevention needs'.
'During the control period, vehicles other than those assisting with flood prevention are prohibited from passing through,' the centre said in a statement on social media platform Weibo.
President Xi Jinping 'urged all-out rescue and relief work to safeguard people's lives and property', Xinhua reported Saturday.
The emergency management ministry dispatched over 800 people, nearly 150 vehicles and dozens of boats to help block up the breach and assist with flood relief work, according to Xinhua.
The central government has earmarked an extra 540 million yuan ($74 million) in relief funding for Hunan and other disaster-hit areas, CCTV reported, citing the finance and emergency management ministries.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with flooding across central and southern regions as much of the north swelters through rolling heat waves.
The Asian giant is the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive global warming and make extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Nearly a quarter of a million people were evacuated this week in eastern China as rainstorms caused the Yangtze and other rivers to swell, according to state media.
Hunan was hit with deadly mountain floods and landslides last month, while deluges also left 38 dead in southern Guangdong province. And the death toll from a tornado in eastern Shandong province on Friday rose from one to five, CCTV said Saturday, with dozens of others injured.
Meanwhile, rescue personnel began sealing a breached dike at China's second-largest freshwater lake in the south of the country on Saturday afternoon after water levels stabilised on both side of the burst, Chinese state media said.
A day earlier the 226-metre stretch of dike breached at Dongting Lake in Hunan province, with 5,700 residents relocated, China Central Television reported.
More than 2,300 rescue personnel were working to build a second line of defence, with footage showing excavators piling boulders into barriers and being resupplied by trucks.
No one had been harmed as of early Saturday, reports said.
Earlier footage showed a wave of water surging through a breach in the dike past several overturned lorries, along with large stretches of half-submerged houses and fields in the surrounding area.
On Saturday afternoon the Ministry of Water Resources said it would also inspect dikes on Poyang lake, China's largest freshwater lake, in southeastern China, as well as embankments along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Heavy rainfall pounded parts Hunan province earlier this week, causing the Miluo River in Pingjiang county to swell to its highest in 70 years.
Local authorities responded by activating the maximum emergency response level. State media showed large parts of towns waterlogged and stranded people being rescued on boats. - Reuters
State news agency Xinhua said the breach occurred on Friday afternoon in part of an embankment on the shore of Dongting Lake in central China's Hunan province.
No casualties were immediately reported but the 226-metre breach forced nearly 6,000 people to evacuate from nearby areas, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
It published footage showing lake water flowing through a yawning gap in a dyke, inundating farmland and lapping at the rooftops of village homes.
The country's road monitoring centre said Saturday traffic controls had been imposed on all roads leading in and out of Hunan's Huarong county -- home to around half a million people -- 'due to flood prevention needs'.
'During the control period, vehicles other than those assisting with flood prevention are prohibited from passing through,' the centre said in a statement on social media platform Weibo.
President Xi Jinping 'urged all-out rescue and relief work to safeguard people's lives and property', Xinhua reported Saturday.
The emergency management ministry dispatched over 800 people, nearly 150 vehicles and dozens of boats to help block up the breach and assist with flood relief work, according to Xinhua.
The central government has earmarked an extra 540 million yuan ($74 million) in relief funding for Hunan and other disaster-hit areas, CCTV reported, citing the finance and emergency management ministries.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with flooding across central and southern regions as much of the north swelters through rolling heat waves.
The Asian giant is the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive global warming and make extreme weather more frequent and intense.
Nearly a quarter of a million people were evacuated this week in eastern China as rainstorms caused the Yangtze and other rivers to swell, according to state media.
Hunan was hit with deadly mountain floods and landslides last month, while deluges also left 38 dead in southern Guangdong province. And the death toll from a tornado in eastern Shandong province on Friday rose from one to five, CCTV said Saturday, with dozens of others injured.
Meanwhile, rescue personnel began sealing a breached dike at China's second-largest freshwater lake in the south of the country on Saturday afternoon after water levels stabilised on both side of the burst, Chinese state media said.
A day earlier the 226-metre stretch of dike breached at Dongting Lake in Hunan province, with 5,700 residents relocated, China Central Television reported.
More than 2,300 rescue personnel were working to build a second line of defence, with footage showing excavators piling boulders into barriers and being resupplied by trucks.
No one had been harmed as of early Saturday, reports said.
Earlier footage showed a wave of water surging through a breach in the dike past several overturned lorries, along with large stretches of half-submerged houses and fields in the surrounding area.
On Saturday afternoon the Ministry of Water Resources said it would also inspect dikes on Poyang lake, China's largest freshwater lake, in southeastern China, as well as embankments along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Heavy rainfall pounded parts Hunan province earlier this week, causing the Miluo River in Pingjiang county to swell to its highest in 70 years.
Local authorities responded by activating the maximum emergency response level. State media showed large parts of towns waterlogged and stranded people being rescued on boats. - Reuters