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Devastated by summer floods and landslides, many of China’s rural poor await an uncertain future. Almost one and a half million people have fled their homes and more than five million hectares of farmland have been ruined. Poverty and disaster are undermining China’s development.
John Sparrow/IFRC
High and dry in Hunan, China, Li Ming
Chang, 86, assesses devastation in his
village. Summer floods and landslides
are deepening rural poverty in the world’
s most populous nation, the
International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies warned today.
While more than 500 people are dead or
missing, one and a half million have
fled their homes and huge damage has
been done to farmland. The loss of
livelihood is enormous, the Federation
says, and greater poverty is the likely
consequence. The Chinese Red Cross has
launched a nationwide appeal to extend
its relief operations.
REF:
John Sparrow/IFRC
Farmers face ruin in the village of Chi
Zuxi, in China’s Hunan province after a
flash flood turned their fields to
wasteland. Rocks, boulders, stones and
debris cover land where terraced rice
fields had held promise of an excellent
harvest. Nothing will grow there again.
Mitigating the losses of the summer
flood season will require continued
relief efforts and today the Chinese Red
Cross launched a nationwide appeal to
extend its operations. So far the Red
Cross has responded in Anhui, Chonqing,
Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei,
Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jilin,
Shandong, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
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John Sparrow/IFRC
Farmer Zheng Changqiu has lost all he
had, his home, his harvest, his animals
in China’s summer floods. Hunan, Zheng’s
home province, has been among those hit
hardest by floods and landslides that
have brought losses and damage estimated
at US$ 2.65 million. The Chinese Red
Cross today launched a nationwide appeal
to extend its relief operations. Many of
China’s farmers were already in trouble.
The government said last month the
number of people living below the
national poverty line of about $77 a
year had risen by 800,000 in 2003, the
first time the figure had risen since
the late 1970s.
REF:
John Sparrow/IFRC
Rice ruined by floods in Xu Pu county,
south central China is cut for animal
fodder. So far this summer, China’s
annual floods have devastated five
million hectares of land and many
farmers will rely on food aid to get
them through to next year's harvest.
REF:
John Sparrow/IFRC
Made homeless by landslides in China’s
Hunan province, villagers wait for a
solution in a derelict former hospital
in Yuan Ling town. Authorities are
nowhere near coping with the needs of
this year’s flood season, the
International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies said today. A
million and a half people have fled
their homes but poor counties are
struggling to resettle even a few
thousand of them. The means are not
there and there may be worse to come. On
average, official statistics record,
some four million people a year need to
be resettled or transferred as a
consequence of natural disasters.
REF:
John Sparrow/IFRC
Poverty along with economic loss due to
natural disaster is undermining China’s
development, and the gap between rich
and poor is growing. The rural poor are
desperately poor. Flood-hit families
assisted by the Chinese Red Cross and
the International Federation in 2003
reported an average annual income of
between US$ 85 and 137, far below the
international poverty threshold of a
dollar a day.
REF:
John Sparrow/IFRC
Defying the flood season. Zhang Zhong
Chun, 97, the last inhabitant of Beirong,
in south central China’s Hunan province,
refuses to leave her evacuated township.
She is too old to move, she says,
despite the threat of landslides. The 2,
000 other inhabitants fled after slides
destroyed homes and killed several
people. The Chinese Red Cross launched a
nationwide appeal today to strengthen
the season’s relief efforts.
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