Photo: VCG

Officials in Central China's Henan have vowed to restore basic production and living conditions in areas hit by torrential rainfall in late July to pre-disaster levels within one year, as well as striving to comprehensively improve flood measures and the drainage capacity of key rivers and water conservancy facilities within two to three years.

Li Yingwei, deputy director of the provincial development and reform commission, was speaking at a press conference about post-disaster reconstruction in the province on Monday.

As of 7 am on Monday, the heavy rainfall and flooding that hit Henan in late July had affected 14.814 million people, with about 933,800 people having to be relocated. 

At least 16.2 million mu (1.08 million hectares) of crops have been affected, among which 5.13 million mu will be unable to yield any harvest. The direct economic losses of the disaster have amounted to 133.7 billion yuan ($20.65 billion).

The officials said that they would try to make important municipal facilities, infrastructure and public service facilities available within one month, and that they would reinforce and repair basic functions of infrastructure such as transportation, water conservancy, meteorology, electricity and telecommunications within three months.

Railways damaged by the heavy rainfall have been reopened except a line from Taiyuan in Northeast China's Shanxi Province to Jiaozuo in Henan, as of Sunday.

During the rainfall and flooding, three high speed railways and seven normal railways suffered water damage in more than 1,100 places. Over 876 kilometers of highways and 6,944 kilometers of road in rural areas were damaged.

Zhengzhou, Xinxiang, Anyang and Hebi, the four cities most heavily hit by rainfall, reopened bus and taxi services as of Sunday.

The province said that it will complete the revision of the overall emergency plan at the provincial, municipal and county levels by the end of 2021, the provincial Emergency Management Department said on Saturday.

According to data released by the Henan provincial government on August 2, the death toll from the floods had risen to 302, with 50 people missing. 

The capital city Zhengzhou is also under lockdown in some areas because of the latest outbreak of COVID-19, which has led to 116 confirmed cases and 12 asymptomatic carriers as of Monday 6 pm.

Global Times