China fails to control excessive floods despite several years of efforts: Report

Despite the Chinese government building multiple reservoirs, levees, dikes and dams on the nation’s seven major river systems over the course of several years, the country is still struggling to a drastic escalation in the number of floods that have destroyed both industrial and agricultural land along with millions of houses. According to reports, China has been subjected to three of the world’s ten most destructive floods since 1950. Just last month, the world’s largest hydrochloric dam, Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River flooded raising concerns of the officials for overflowing. 

According to a Hong Kong-based research organisation, China Water Risk, more than 40 per cent of China’s total population is established on the Yangtze River Economic Belt and they together make up for nearly 50 per cent of export values of the country and 45 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Moreover, if taken as an independent identity, the region’s economy could be third-largest in the world. 

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Dams can not prevent flooding, says expert

Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, told Chinese state media cited by ANI that the increasing climate crisis is also contributing to the surge in the risk of extreme rainfall events. He also added that climate change has made it “even more likely that dams like the Three Gorges will be unable to prevent the worst flooding from occurring in the future." If the temperature rises by 2 degrees Celcius it will directly intensify the flows around the Yangtze River along with other major rivers across the world leading to extensive floods. 

A study based on the rainfall records of two periods between 1961 and 2010 revealed that the heavy downpour days are more frequent and intense in cities as compared to the suburban areas along the Yangtze River. According to reports, on average such days witness a spike of 30 per cent in places such as Suzhou, near Shanghai, which is popular bridal exports and big tech factories.

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(With ANI inputs)