China's Ministry of Water Resources: Extreme flood disasters show a trend of "one increase and three random"

China News Service, Beijing, September 30 (Reporter Chen Su) China's Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying said in Beijing on September 30 that China's extreme flood disasters are showing an obvious trend of "one increase and three randomness", that is, climate change has caused an increase in extreme heavy rain and flood events, and extreme flood disasters occur at random locations, times, and intensities.

Li Guoying said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that day that since the beginning of this year, the water conservancy department has made every effort to deal with the severe situation of frequent river floods and concurrent floods in the north and south. 9,228 (times) large and medium-sized reservoirs have been put into operation, and 998 rivers have resisted floods exceeding warning levels. , 49 rivers had the largest flood since measured data were recorded. Reservoirs effectively stored 137.5 billion cubic meters of flood water, reducing flooding in 1,165 towns, reducing flooding of 10.65 million acres of crops, avoiding the transfer of 5.81 million people (times), and minimizing flood losses.

"In recent years, the impact of global climate change has intensified, and heavy rains, floods, and floods have occurred frequently in China, and defense work is facing a series of new situations and new tasks." Li Guoying said that overall, during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China's flood disasters are characterized by full uncertainty, which has brought great challenges to defense work.

He said that the next step will be to accelerate the modernization of flood control safety systems and capabilities, and to respond to the uncertainty of flood disaster events with the completeness, foresight and certainty of the defense system.

Specifically, the government will lay a solid engineering foundation, base on optimizing the pattern of flood control and disaster reduction in the river basin, accelerate the construction of a number of flood control control reservoirs, comprehensively and systematically promote the renovation and upgrading of old reservoirs, and the elimination and reinforcement of dangerous reservoirs, accelerate the construction of river embankments and river channel regulation, strengthen the construction and management of flood storage and detention areas, achieve "stopping, draining, and distribution" and improve flood control capabilities. At the same time, we must do a good job in monitoring and forecasting rainwater conditions, and establish and improve a defense system.