Fierce rainstorms swept China this summer, triggering floods, landslides and mud-rock flows, which many experts believe to be a result of the global climate change.

 

Hundreds of people were killed. However, no casualties from the Huaihe River floods -- the second largest since 1954 -- have been reported yet, while in 1991, the tameless river in east China claimed 572 lives.

 

Zhao Shouchuan, a 47-year-old farmer has kept the habit for years -- sitting with his family around the wooden square table in sweltering summer nights, drinking porridge with the green soy bean and a fried fish while enjoying the cool breeze.

 

He felt assured despite the continuous rains, as he knew it well that one kilometer away, a dyke was protecting the 1.26-square-kilometer Wangjiaba village against the swollen Huaihe River.

 

But only four years ago when the Huaihe River swelled, his five-member family squeezed in a tent, gulping instant noodles and drinking bottled water for over 20 days.

 

Zhao is among the 20,000 people from the Mengwa sluice area relocated to four dyke-protecting villages like Wangjiaba and 136 flood-avoiding platforms, which are tall stages in the floodwater storage area and would turn to island in floods. In the entire Anhui Province, a total of 150,000 people were relocated.

 

Although his 1.3-hectare crops were inundated, Zhao didn't feel the least worried. "I could get compensation for that," he said, adding that each April, they are asked to report what crops they had and how many hectares, so that they could be compensated accordingly in case of natural disasters.

 

"These projects help reducing the losses and impact of floods to local people," said Hu Liansong, Party secretary of the Fuyang city in the northwest of the Anhui Province, adding that these measures go in accordance with the new political concept "people are the most important" advocated by President Hu Jintao.

 

"The change of flood-control mindset is vital to protecting people and their properties in combat against the flood," said Liu Guoping, an official with the Huaihe River Water Resources Commission.

 

Liu recalled that in the past, guiding principle of flood control was defending the dams and television footage often showed lines of soldiers and police shouting out slogans and piling sandbags in attempt to stop the onrushing water.

 

Ding Yuanzhu, researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission, sees the change of China's emergency-handling system after so much bitter experience.

 

In a plan against emergency issued by the central government in January 2006, people's lives and properties are listed as top priority, instead of the dams and buildings.

 

The introduction of new technology also benefits a lot. Ding recalled that in a flood that blitzed the Quxian County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local government sent mobile phone messages to people and evacuated 115,000, avoiding more causalities.

 

However, not everybody has such a fortune. The progress couldn't cover the fact that some local governments have failed to do efficient work in the rainstorms and floods.

 

The disasters have killed at least 71 in central China's Hubei Province, 42 in the mountainous Chongqing Municipality, 54 in Sichuan, 163 in Yunnan, 40 in Shandong and 38 in the far northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

 

China's death toll from natural disasters stood at a staggering 715 with 129 people missing by July 16, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

 

Rainstorms have severely damaged Jinan and Chongqing, killing dozens of people and injured hundreds in the metropolis. Local media criticized that some government officials failed to give out an emergency warning to the citizens.

 

Officials are also blamed to have merely focused on creating a beautiful outlook for the cities, rather than improving the practical functions of the urban area, such as upgrading the drainage systems.

 

Environmental erosion, inadequate reservoirs repair and corruption have all plagued China's disaster relief.

 

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had urged local governments to try to improve weather monitoring, give priority to people's safety and properly relocate people in flood-hit areas amid the ongoing battle against floods.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2007)