Prolonged heavy rains over the past few days have caused flooding that killed at least 8 people in Thua Duc city, Hebei province, while 18 others are still missing. According to Tan Hoa commune, the victims all lived in villages in the Hung Long area, bordering Mat Van district - a mountainous area in the suburbs of Beijing.
Since mid- last week, extreme rains have fallen on Beijing and the surrounding areas, causing the same amount of rainfall as the whole year in less than a week in some places. In Beijing alone, at least 30 people have been killed, including 28 in Mat Van district.
Mat Van Reservoir - the largest irrigation project in northern China - recorded a record amount of water since its construction in 1960. At the peak of the flood, up to 6,550 m3 of water - equivalent to 2.5 Olympic swimming pools - overflowed into the lake every second, raising the total capacity to 3.63 billion m3. This huge amount of water has overflowed towns and villages in the upstream, causing serious flash floods.
In a village north of the lake, a landslide occurred on July 28, killing 8 people and leaving 4 missing. Meteorologists believe that increasingly severe extreme weather and flooding are related to climate change, while creating a major challenge for the Chinese government in disaster prevention.
