Deliberately Flooded: Anger grows in China as towns serve as 'moat' to save Beijing

Much of Beijing was spared after heavy rains in China finally ceased on Tuesday, however, officials made sure the flooding flowed to the cities surrounding Beijing, as reported by the New York Times. According to reports, China on Wednesday dispatched thousands of rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a flooded city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathes of the city twice the size of Paris.

Chinese State media reported that officials in Hebei Province opened floodgates and spillways in low-lying areas to divert floodwaters away from Beijing and Tianjin. This was done to prevent the rivers and reservoirs in these major cities from overflowing, which could have caused widespread flooding and damage. The decision to divert the floodwaters to Hebei Province was controversial, as it meant that some towns and villages in the province were flooded. However, the government argued that it was necessary to protect the capital cities from the worst of the flooding.

The Communist Party head of Hebei, Ni Yuefeng stated that he ordered the orderly activation of flood storage and diversion areas in order to relieve pressure on Beijing’s flood control and resolutely build a moat for the capital. The decision to divert floodwaters to Hebei Province further overwhelmed the nearby city of Zhuozhou, which was already dealing with severe flooding.

Fooding in Zhuozhou

The flooding in Zhuozhou was caused by a broken levee and an overflowing river. The water levels rose to 23 feet, demolishing homes and businesses and the streets and neighborhoods turned into a brown, muddy lake. Nearly a million people have been forced to evacuate from the province and in adjacent villages on the fringes of Beijing. In some areas, the flooding disrupted power supplies as well as internet and mobile connections. Residents posted online pleas for help in finding hundreds of missing people.

The flooding in Zhuozhou has caused widespread anger and frustration among the survivors. Many people are angry that help arrived too late in some areas, leaving them stranded. Others are upset that they were not given ample warning about the discharge of floodwaters, and they are unsure if they will be compensated for their losses, New York Times reported.

The people of Hebei Province are angry that the local government prioritized appeasing national leaders in Beijing over protecting the lives and property of its citizens.

"To protect Beijing, no one cares if we in Hebei are being flooded,” a resident of a village on Zhuozhou’s outskirts complained on Friday morning. “No one ever informed us of the flood discharge or told us to prepare to evacuate — if we had known this information, we would not have left so many things behind,” said a villager, who gave his family name as Yu. “Everything is soaked in water. I can barely calculate my loss,” he added.