Miles away in China, the Yellow River or Huáng Hé, is the third-longest river in Asia, following
the Yangtze River and Yenisei River, and the sixth-longest in the world at the
estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).
The river basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and
it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. However, because of
frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual
elevation of the river bed (due in part to manmade erosion upstream), sometimes
above the level of its surrounding farm fields, it also has the names China's
Sorrow.
Flood mostly is
natural phenomenon and could be devastating – it is overflow of water that
submerges land which is usually dry. The European Union (EU) Floods Directive
defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered by water. Flooding may occur as an overflow of water
from water bodies, such as a river, lake, or ocean, in which the water overtops
or breaks levees, resulting in some of that water escaping its usual
boundaries, or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated
ground – there could be combination of factors as well. Some
floods develop slowly, while others such as flash floods, can develop in just a
few minutes and without visible signs of rain.
floods in France
A one-hundred-year flood
is a flood event that has a 1% probability of occurring in any given year. Based
on the expected 100-year flood flow rate, the flood water level can be mapped
as an area of inundation. But there may
not be a pattern ! .. .. ….. the 1931
China floods were a series of floods that occurred in the Republic of China.
The flooding of yellow river is generally considered among one of the deadliest
natural disasters ever recorded, and almost certainly the deadliest of the 20th
century.
Hebei is a province
of China in the North China region. The name Hebei literally means "north
of the river", referring to its location entirely to the north of the
Huang He 黄河(Yellow River). Henan is a province located
in the central part of the country. Although the name of the province means
"south of the river",approximately a quarter of the province lies
north of the Yellow River, also known as the "Huang He". Henan is the birthplace of Chinese
civilization with over 3,000 years of recorded history, and remained China's
cultural, economical, and political center until approximately 1,000 years ago.
The provinces are
in news for wrong reasons .. floods in
north and central China have killed at least 150 people, with scores missing
and hundreds of thousands forced from homes, reports BBC. Hebei and Henan provinces are the worst hit
by the flash floods and landslides. At least 114 people have been killed in
Hebei, with 111 missing and 53,000 houses destroyed, officials say. Heavy rains
this past week in northern China caused extensive flooding, overwhelming levees
and killing at least 72 people in one province, with many others missing, state
media reported.
The death toll in
Xingtai, an industrial city in Hebei Province, rose sharply on Saturday, days
after a wall of water descended on one village in the middle of the night with
little or no warning, according to the Beijing News. In addition to the 25
people in Xingtai who were confirmed dead, 13 were missing, China National
Radio reported on its official social media site. In both places, the local government took days to make
public the devastation and report the casualties. The reports were from
only two locations in Hebei, a densely populated province on the North China
Plain that abuts Beijing. On Saturday, the website of the local Ministry of
Civil Affairs listed 72 deaths, 78 people missing and more than 298,000 people
displaced across the province. Hebei has a population of more than 73 million.
Large portions of
China have been inundated with heavy rain this summer. More than 160 people
died in southern China after heavy rains and flooding this month, with many
people blaming the local government for failing to invest in proper drainage
systems and for the extensive filling in of lakes that in the past could absorb
much of the water. Chinese-language posts on Twitter, which is blocked in
China, reportedly are showing pictures and videos purporting to show the
devastation in the village of Daxian, which was inundated after a nearby levee
burst. One video showed water cascading over homes, turning streets into rivers
and apparently sweeping several people away. Other images showed corpses in
farm fields. The images could not be verified as genuine.
In a news
conference on Saturday, officials in Xingtai denied reports that the flooding
had been caused by an unannounced discharge from a local dam, saying that the
flood was the worst in the area’s history and that people had been given
warning of the heavy flooding through social media and television alerts. Though it is not clear why the local governments did not report
news of the flooding and deaths sooner, it reportedly is not unusual for Chinese officials to want
to play down bad news. In 2012, heavy floods in Beijing killed dozens of
people, but officials were slow to disclose details. Effective flood control
has been a marker of well-run governments in China for thousands of years.
At the places
devastated by floods, the victims complained about a lack of flood warnings and
ineffective rescue efforts. There have
been power cuts and major problems with the communications and transport
networks across a wide area, Xinhua said. The summer rains have been especially
heavy in China this year. BBC reports
that it is estimated that more than 1.5
million hectares of crops have been damaged and said direct economic losses
exceed $3bn (£2.3bn).
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
23rd
July 2016 @ 22:24 hrs.
Source : BBC and other media.
