Chinese cities brace for floods a heat scorches inland regions

Beijing, July 21 (BNA): Several Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, braced for flooding on Friday, while inland regions were hit by heat that threatened to shrink the country’s largest freshwater lake.

According to Reuters, China has been plagued by extreme weather since April, causing deaths, damaging infrastructure, wilting crops and raising concerns about its ability to adapt to climate change.

Historically, China enters the peak rainy season in late July, but the storms are becoming more intense and unpredictable, exposing densely populated megacities with poor drainage.

Heavy rains battered the financial hub of Shanghai on Friday, with precipitation in the city center recording 125.4 mm (4.9 inches) in an hour, according to the local meteorological bureau.

Videos circulating on social media in China showed roads in parts of Shanghai turning into rivers, with half of cars submerged and pedestrians struggling through the deep water.

In the capital, Beijing, authorities have deployed more than 2,600 people to pre-drain dozens of pumping stations and disinfect thousands of water discharge outlets along roads. Many bus lines in suburban and mountainous areas have stopped.

Authorities in the neighboring city of Tianjin have also stepped up flood control efforts in the Hai Basin, a major northern drainage system.

By contrast, a lack of precipitation in Jiangxi Province has caused Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater body, to drop to its lowest level for this time of year since records began in 1951.

Poyang Lake, known as the Kidney in China because of the role it plays in regulating the flow of the Yangtze River, is usually swelled in the summer by rains and slumps in the winter.

Last year, it also shrunk unexpectedly due to a drought.

The Central Meteorological Observatory issued warnings of heavy rain in eight provinces and autonomous regions as of Saturday evening, according to state media.

State radio reported that officials said at a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang that all authorities should prioritize life and pay attention to flood prevention and drought control.

Meanwhile, temperatures of 35C (95F) and above continued to threaten other parts of China.

Northwest Xinjiang, where temperatures reached a record high of 52.2C on Sunday, remained blanketed in worse-than-usual heat, while some areas in neighboring Gansu province suffered sweltering heat while others warned of floods and landslides.

Officials have repeatedly warned that China is vulnerable to the impact of climate change because of its large population and unevenly distributed water supply.

In Jiangsu Province, a waterfall fell at a high-speed railway station in the rain-soaked city of Wuxi, according to clips on social media.

As many as 150 cities experience waterlogging each summer, despite efforts to improve drainage.

In July 2021, heavy rains in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, killed nearly 400 people, including 14 who drowned in a submerged subway line. It rained more on three days than the city usually gets in a year.

The National Meteorological Bureau warned of heavy rain of up to 130 mm (5.12 in) in parts of Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin through Saturday morning.

On Friday morning, part of an ancient city wall in Chongqing, southwest China, collapsed after an hourly rainfall of 100.3 mm over the past day.

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