Photos: China rushes to contain floods after record rainfall

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Photos: China rushes to contain floods after record rainfall

The vast Yangtze drainage area has been lashed by torrential rains since last month

Published: July 14, 2020 14:31 AFP and compiled by Balaram Menon, Digital Content Editor

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Copy of 293491-01-02-1594722248396 — Soldiers erected sandbag flood barriers in a city near China's largest freshwater lake after the heaviest rainfall in nearly six decades drenched the swollen Yangtze River basin. Above: Soldiers building an emergency levee near the shore of Poyang lake to contain flooding due to seasonal rains and the swollen Yangtze River in Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 264091-01-02-1594722204672 — The vast Yangtze drainage area has been lashed by torrential rains since last month, leaving 141 people dead or missing and forcing the evacuation of millions more across several provinces. Above: People (foreground) swim in the swollen Yangtze River as the roof of an inundated pavilion is seen above floodwaters in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 268482-01-02-1594722207197 — Flooding along the river - the world's third longest - has been an annual summer scourge since ancient times, but this year's inundation has been especially severe. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289125-01-02-1594722209278 — The downpours have intensified since last week, causing dozens of Yangtze-basin waterways to post record-high water levels, while more than 400 had exceeded warning levels, Vice Minister of Emergency Management Zheng Guoguang said on Monday. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 285361-01-02-1594722220073 — "Since June, average precipitation in the Yangtze river basin has been the highest since 1961," he told a news briefing in Beijing. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289564-01-02-1594722237168 — Authorities had been monitoring a flood crest as it neared Wuhan, the metropolis of 11 million that the Yangtze winds through and which had already suffered the vast number of China's deaths and cases in the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in the city. Above: This aerial view shows a bridge leading to the inundated Tianxingzhou island. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289128-01-02-1594722211924 — They said river levels were decreasing after the crest passed Wuhan on Monday with no reports of major new flooding there. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289213-01-02-1594722232485 — Concern was now shifting downstream to Poyang Lake, which drains into the Yangtze in hard-hit Jiangxi province and is the largest freshwater lake fully within China's borders. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289132-01-02-1594722225569 — State-run Xinhua news agency said water levels at a key hydrological station on the lake broke a record set in 1998, when more than 4,000 people were killed in China's worst flooding in recent decades. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289563-01-02 [1]-1594722239210 — State media reported that more than 100,000 people - including rescue personnel, soldiers, and ordinary citizens - had been thrown into flood-control efforts in Jiangxi. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 293490-01-02-1594722241328 — Around half of those were deployed at Poyang Lake, where many dikes and levees had collapsed, state television reported. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289212-01-02-1594722228065 — In the city of Jiujiang, near where the lake drains into the Yangtze, soldiers wearing orange life vests fortified the river bank with a wall of sandbags piled as high as a man. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 285121-01-02-1594722213982 — The Yangtze's length is exceeded only by the Nile and the Amazon, and its drainage basin is home to around 400 million people. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 285359-01-02-1594722216068 — Summer rains and seasonal glacial melt in the river's Tibetan plateau headwaters cause routine annual flooding. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 289562-01-02 [1]-1594722230198 — But environmentalists say the threat has worsened over the decades due in part to rampant construction of dams and levees that have cut connections between the river and adjacent lakes and floodplains that for centuries had helped absorb the summer surge. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 293492-01-02-1594722245912 — Conservationists also warn that the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may lead to more dangerous summer flooding. Image Credit: AFP

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Copy of 293489-01-02-1594722243838 — Chinese soldiers building an emergency levee along the shore of Poyang lake to contain flooding due to seasonal rains and the swollen Yangtze River in Jiujiang in China's central Jiangxi province. Image Credit: AFP

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