As China’s rainy season begins, the National Climate Center predicts that flooding in the country’s north and south will be as severe as it was last summer, when torrential rain killed hundreds. Cities with millions of inhabitants have little time to prepare. Heavy rains last week harmed over 27,000 people in 22 counties in the southern province of Guangxi, damaging over 2,300 hectares of crops and costing 104 million yuan ($15.4 million). Due to the heavy rains, numerous cities in Guangdong, another southern province, closed kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.
Floods are a common occurrence in China throughout the summer, particularly in low-lying areas around the Yangtze River and its tributaries. However, as global warming causes more extreme weather, the storms have become more intense. Scientists discovered evidence that the atmosphere may contain 7% extra moisture for every degree Celsius as the Earth warms.
According to China’s National Climate Center, floods this year would be ‘significantly harsher’ and ‘more intense’ than in previous years. Cities must remain vigilant and acknowledge the growing threat posed by climate-change-driven extreme weather events, according to a separate study from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission.
Cities all across the world are fighting to safeguard their inhabitants and infrastructure against more unpredictable and severe weather. South Asia is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave, putting millions of people at risk. In the United States, high temperatures in Texas are putting a strain on the power infrastructure, while wildfires are raging once again in Southern California.
According to a 2021 assessment by the non-profit CDP, 43 percent of communities do not have a plan in place to handle increased extreme weather. That was clear in China last year when floods in the central Henan province killed 398 people. At least 12 of them were trapped at an underground metro station in Zhengzhou when water poured into the passageways.
The tragedy drew extraordinary attention on Chinese social media, with people lamenting how poorly Chinese cities, even the most industrialised ones, have adapted to a changing climate and increased frequency of catastrophic weather occurrences. In Zhengzhou, for example, the meteorological agency gave flood warnings, but other government offices did not act quickly enough.
According to a Swiss Re Institute research, China experienced the world’s second-worst flood losses in 2021, totaling around $25 billion, after Europe’s $41.8 billion in damage from heavy rainstorms that devastated nations including Germany. At this year’s annual legislative conference in March, Chinese legislators stated that cities must improve their resilience to catastrophic disasters by enhancing weather monitoring and alarm systems, as well as upgrading infrastructure to combat floods.
The housing ministry and the NDRC encouraged cities to ensure that departments within the government coordinate to create emergency management systems for urban flood control ahead of this year’s flood season, and they also asked the media to assist promote public awareness of disaster prevention.
‘There will be more extreme weather occurrences, and global temperatures will continue to rise,’ said Cai Wenjia, an associate professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University. ‘The Chinese people and governments at all levels lack enough awareness and planning for climate adaptation, and have not paid sufficient attention to it.’
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