Floods and related disasters have left a total of 1,138 people dead and 210 missing as of August 27, said the Ministry of Water Resources at a press conference held on Tuesday.

China's Water Resources Minister Chen Lei reported that the death toll so far this year was 50 percent less than the same period over previous years, thanks to effective prevention and control measures and orderly responses.

Mountain flash floods claimed 469 lives, while landslides and mud-rock flows killed 409 people, accounting for 41 percent and 36 percent of the death toll respectively, said Vice Water Resources Minister E Jingping.

E said that most of the deaths occurred during the peak rainy season of July and August.

Anti-flood facilities and the efficient transfer of civilians have helped 46.152 million residents to avoid flood damage. The timely release of flood alert messages has also prevented 203,000 people from being hurt by high altitude flash flood disasters, Chen said.

More than 800,000 people were safely transferred when the Huaihe River experienced great floods this summer. No casualties have been reported, Chen told the press conference.

According to the ministry's statistics, floods in China have incurred 75.9 billion yuan (US$10 billion) of direct economic losses. As of July 21 severe rains and floods affected 139 million people.

To date, 5.32 million hectares of crops have been damaged and 883,000 houses have collapsed.

National economic losses are down 12.9 percent as compared to figures from the same period over previous years, Chen added.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2007)