https://www.wionews.com/world/china...ing-towns-to-save-capital-city-beijing-622499
China is currently battling with record rainfall with the capital city Beijing and northern parts of the country drowning in floods. Typhoon Doksuri, which tore through the Pacific last week, still continues to wreak havoc triggering thousands of evacuations.
As the flood situation in the country turned fatal, the authorities (CCP) took the decision to divert the water triggering outrage among the people.
On Tuesday, when the intense rainfall eventually halted, most parts of the Chinese capital were spared, but the water was directed elsewhere.
The officials in the Hebei Province, which borders Beijing, had unfurled flood gates in seven low-lying flood control zones so as to contain the rivers from flooding the Chinese capital and the region’s other metropolis, Tianjin, as per the state media.
The Communist Party leader of Hebei, Ni Yuefeng, said he ordered the “activation of flood storage and diversion areas in an orderly manner, so as to reduce the pressure on Beijing’s flood control and resolutely build a ‘moat’ for the capital,” according to the New York Times reports.
This move by the government further flooded the neighbouring city of Zhuozhou in Hebei, which had been making extensive efforts to fight its own intense flood situation after a levee broke and a local river overflowed.
The streets and neighbourhoods of this town got converted into an island with water levels ascending up to 23 feet causing damage to homes and businesses.
In some of the areas, the flooding disrupted power supplies as well as internet and mobile connections.
Natural disasters kill 147 in China
On Friday (August 4), China released a statement saying that natural disasters had claimed the lives of at least 147 people, with several missing in the month of July after record rainfall hit the country's capital.
China's Ministry of Emergency Management said that 142 of the deaths or disappearances recorded in the month of July were caused by flooding or geological disasters.
The remaining five deaths or disappearances were due to other natural disasters such as drought.
Extreme rainfall
According to reports, since Saturday, the amount of rainfall that has been pouring has breached many local meteorological records.
A precipitation reading of 744.8mm (29.3 inches) was recorded by a reservoir in Beijing's Changping district between Saturday and Wednesday, which is the most to be logged in the city in over 140 years.
The previous record of 609mm was set in the year 1891.
In Hebei, 1,003mm of rain was recorded by a local weather station for a three-day period, i.e. from Saturday to Monday. Such an amount is usually witnessed over a year and a half.
