Editorial | Prevention best amid China flood misery
- Cadres have been urged to ‘always be on high alert and take the initiative’ as water levels continue to rise along with deaths
The summer has been cruel to many areas of China. For weeks, heavy rains have fed floodwaters that have inundated much of the country’s south and central region even as crops wither in northern fields due to prolonged drought.
With global temperatures creeping up and extreme weather becoming the norm, it is little wonder the leadership has been calling on authorities to be prepared to save lives.
The latest exhortation came from a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body chaired by President Xi Jinping, which last week called on cadres to “always be on high alert and take the initiative” in flood control efforts.
Work was urged to prevent breaching of embankments and dam collapses, and to protect critical infrastructure including pipelines, canals, motorways and railways, underground urban tunnels and bridges.
Already damage has been extensive. Just this month, Dongting Lake in the central province of Hunan breached an embankment and forced 7,000 to evacuate.
Last week, a flash flood in Shaanxi province washed away a highway bridge, killing a dozen people.
