Chinese want more flood protection: Poll
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More than 80 percent of people in a survey blamed the flood disasters in recent months on a destroyed natural ecosystem.
Twenty-eight provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China have been hit by storms and floods since March, affecting 137 million people and causing 991 deaths while leaving 558 people missing, and leading to 193.5 billion yuan ($28.57 billion) in economic damage, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on July 30.
The Social Research Center of the China Youth Daily carried out an online survey polling 3,462 people in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
More than 97 percent of people in the survey said they were paying close attention to the consequences of the flooding, while 82.4 percent believed the disasters were the result of human neglect.
"The disaster is pure human mistake," said 23 year-old Xu Di, a college student who closely followed the consequences of the flood.
"The natural disaster might have occurred anyway, but it wouldn't have been so bad," she said.
"People's opinions make sense," said Xu Xiangyang, an expert with Hohai University.
"The overall amount of rainfall over the Yangtze valley was not so heavy, actually smaller than the 1945 flood, but the water level was extremely high," he said. "Artificial development played an important part in this."
He said the overdeveloping of the Yangtze River had drained a number of lakes along the waterway, thus limiting its water holding capacity. As a result, once there was flooding, "disasters could hardly be avoided".
In the survey, nearly 68 percent of those polled believed global warming was related to the flood, too, while 83.9 percent of respondents appealed for increased environmental protection to stop soil erosion and water loss.
Moreover, 54.2 percent of survey respondents complained that China did not have a long-term plan for flood prevention, while 80 percent said Chinese officials should establish one as opposed to addressing the river problems only when a disaster came.
China initiated water-control of the Yangtze River after a big flood in 1954. From the 1950s to the 1970s, local government officials required peasants living along the river to volunteer to construct reservoirs in every slack season.
After another deluge in 1998, the central government poured some 35.7 billion yuan ($5.27 billion) every year into water conservancy projects. For the first time in history, people returned massive grain farmlands to forestry.
Zhan Chengyu, a professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, said it was necessary to promote flood forecast techniques amid the increasingly complex situation, which has been accelerated by global warming.
"The government should also spread rescue knowledge to people to cut the loss of flood," Zhan said, quoted by the China Youth Daily.
Seventy percent in the survey were in favor of establishing early warning and emergency management mechanism.
