Zhang made the remarks at a press conference Friday morning held by the State Council Information Office. He pointed out although northern areas have seen increased rainfall to varying degrees, the general situation including less water in rivers, inadequate water conservation of irrigation projects and continuous drop of underground water level has not fundamentally changed.

Zhang Zhitong gave a brief on current flooding and droughts. At present, China has entered into its flood season gradually from the south to the north. The water level in the major rivers and lakes is stable while local floods have occurred in some parts of China and severe droughts took place in northeast China.

Since the beginning of this year, precipitation in most parts of north China and parts of northwest China have been more than the yearly average. Precipitation in most parts of the northeast and parts of coastal provinces have been less than the yearly average. In the rest of the country, precipitation is close to the yearly average. Affected by intense rainfall, a big flood within the returned period of once every 10 years occurred in the Xiangjiang River in Hunan Province in mid-May. Floods exceeding warning levels occurred one after another in the Ganjiang River in Jiangxi, Minjiang River in Fujian, Beijiang River and Hanjiang River in Guangdong and Yili River in Xinjiang. Severe torrential floods occurred in some regions. By June 10, 976,000 hectares of crops were affected by floods. Some 16.93 million people were affected where 186 people died. Compared with flood disasters in history, all figures are lower than those in the same period in the past.

In addition, in mid-March, 17 million hectares of crops were affected, which is close to the average figure in the same period in history. Since the end of March, droughts in most places have improved. Currently, 10 million hectares of crops have been affected, over 8 million urban and rural people and 3.8 million large livestock have suffered from temporary drinking water difficulty. The main affected areas are mainly in northeast China.

According to the forecast of meteorologist departments, two rain zones will appear in the north and south from June to August this summer. Precipitation in the north will be more than the average of the previous four years. Based on historical flood statistics, the probability of large floods in major rivers such as the Yellow River, Haihe River and Huaihe River this year will increase. Since China has a large territory, even if no basin-wide large floods occur, regional torrential floods and typhoons are unavoidable.

Now the south has just entered into its crucial flood season and the "plum rain period" has not started yet. The crucial flood season in most parts of the north is from July to August. With the arrival of the crucial flood season, there will be frequent rain and a tropical cyclone, which may result in severe flood disasters in some areas at any time.

(China.org.cn June 13, 2003)