Floods plague north west China by Nina Ridge
Persistent and heavy rain has led to widespread flooding across north west China as rivers broke their banks. The overflowing of the Hanjiang and Weihe rivers in Shaanxi province has forced 300,000 people to flee their homes, in order to escape the water washing through their homes.
Despite recent rainfalls not being particularly heavy, the persistence of the rain has been a problem. Rivers have been hard pushed to deal with the amount of water running off the land, resulting in overflows in some areas.
With the banks of these rivers providing homes to around two million people, any kind of flooding has an affect on at least some of the surrounding population.
The rainy season occurs every year in China between May and October. While heavy rains are always expected, it doesn’t make dealing with flooding any easier.
Figures released by the Chinese Vice-Minister of water resources indicate that billions of pounds worth of damage has been caused directly as a result of flooding this year. Thankfully, conditions are looking much drier across north west China in the next few days.
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