China has expanded economic safeguards for the segments of its population affected by flood control schemes in extreme rain times, including direct compensation promises of the central government and payments for losses of livestock.
In China, diverting the waters of floods to the areas next to the rivers is an important step for subsequent flood management. As the extreme rain grows in frequency, China uses more and more areas, some of which have not been used so far and have been populated by farms, farmland and even residential buildings, fanning social tensions.
According to the reviewed compensation rules related to flood devices published on Friday night, the central government will now take 70 percent of all compensation funds, with local governments responsible for the rest. Previously, the relationship should be decided based on real economic losses and the fiscal situation of local governments.
Cattle and poultry that cannot be relocated over time before the arrival of deviant flood waters will also be included in the compensation scheme for the first time. Previously, only the loss of work animals could be claimed.
In the summer of 2023, almost 1 million people in Hebei, a province at the door of Beijing, were relocated after record rain forced the authorities to divert water from swollen rivers to some populated areas for storage, causing anger on houses and farms sacrificed to save the Chinese capital.
Currently, China has 98 designated flood diversion areas covered by the main river basins, including the Yangtze River basin, home of one third of the country’s population. During the floods of Hebei 2023, eight flood storage areas were used.
Since the beginning of the East Asia Monzón at the beginning of June, precipitation in the average and smaller reach of Yangtze has been up to twice higher than usual, officials of the Playological Administration from China said to journalists on Friday.
In other parts of China, the daily rain measured by 30 weather stations in provinces such as Hubei and Guizhou broke records for the month of June, they said.
Guizhou was the focal point of China’s flood relief efforts this week, with one of its cities hit by floods on a scale that meteorologists said that it could only happen once every 50 years, and a speed that shocked its 300,000 residents.
That led Beijing to issue promises on Thursday to transfer vulnerable populations and industries to low -risk areas and assign more space for flooding.
