China continues to face the wrath of man-made disasters caused due to climate change. After experiencing its deadliest heatwave in six decades, some provinces in China also experienced heavy rains forcing local authorities to evacuate citizens last weekend.
According to a report by state-run Global Times, 46,400 people were evacuated as heavy rains hit seven cities and prefectures in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and Chengdu, Guangyuan and Garze Tibetan Autonomous prefectures.
Xiling snow mountain ski resort in Chengdu received the highest amount of rainfall reaching 165.1 millimetres. Sichuan is likely to see mudslides and other extreme natural disasters since continued high temperatures leading to drought has made the soil loose or caused it to harden, creating chances for natural disasters.
Sichuan province recently deployed drones to bring rainfall to more than 600 sq/km of land, Sky News reported. It remains unclear if that led to the heavy rainfall forcing residents to evacuate.
The Global Times said that there were no reports of geological disasters. Drones were also used in the Chongqing municipality of southwest China last week to bring rains.
Artificial precipitation was also brought to Henan in central China. Henan is one of China’s granary provinces.
Chinese farmers are now taking stock of the devastation caused by the heatwave. Along with drought-like conditions, power cuts caused by the heatwave due to soaring demand has also affected agricultural activities.
The Chinese government promised billions of yuan in fresh aid to farmers, news agency AFP reported. The government is also aware that the heatwave posed a major threat to the country’s autumn harvest.
Farmers in Chongqing said that they measured ground temperatures and found that temperatures soared to 60°C. They told news agencies that instead of working the fields in the daytime, they were forced to work from 10pm to 4am, resting during the day due to the severe heat.
The drought was so severe that it reached the normally frigid Tibetan Plateau.
The Yangtze river basin, stretching from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan province in China’s southwest, home to more than 370 million people was the worst-affected area.
However, the rains in Sichuan and the landfall of Typhoon Ma-on in coastal Guangdong will bring some respite to the citizens living in those regions.
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