Fifty missing in China mudslide

Rescue workers searched today for 50 people missing after a rain-fed mudslide struck in south-western China, while floodwaters in the nation’s east were ebbing under sunny skies.

One person was confirmed dead from yesterday’s mudslide in Sichuan province, said a local official. Fifty people were still missing today, and authorities evacuated 90 villagers who had been stranded by the collapse of mud and rock, he said.

More than 200 people have been killed by floods and mudslides since the start of China’s rainy season in early June. Since the beginning of the year, 569 people have died in flooding, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

In eastern China’s flood-hit Anhui province, the sun was shining today and water levels on the upper reaches of the swollen Huai River were beginning to fall, said a provincial anti-flood official.

Still, more than 1.5 million people were working in shifts to watch dykes bracing the river for any signs of leaks, he said.

“Their main task is to check the dykes, and if a dangerous situation occurs they can help in rescue efforts.”

Water levels on the lower reaches of the Huai River at Hongze Lake were reportedly stable. Four floodwater channels were opened on the lake yesterday, allowing water to drain out, Xinhua reported.

Authorities also made use of waterways linking the lower parts of the river to the Yellow Sea.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from villages along the Huai River in Anhui, Jiangsu and Henan provinces, and authorities have destroyed some dykes and opened floodgates to divert the water to farmland in the hope of sparing cities.

The deadly floods are an annual occurrence, made worse by campaigns decades ago to clear forests and create more farmland for the nation’s huge population.

In recent years, China has budgeted billions of pounds to plant trees and pay farmers to turn cropland into forests.

China is also building dams along flood-prone rivers to produce hydropower as well as control flooding, but critics fear that the larger dams could worsen pollution and cause other ecological problems.