China: government opens investigation into central flooding
The torrential rains and floods that affected Henan Province last month claimed 302 lives and 50 are still missing.
© AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The flood toll has been revised sharply upwards in central China where torrential rains and floods that affected Henan province last month left 302 victims and 50 missing.
While all the victims have not yet found their homes, the central government has decided to launch an investigation to assess the response to the disaster.
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Beijing
,
Stéphane Lagarde
A death toll tripled in the space of a week, the opening of an investigation by the Council of State, the leaders of Henan must be in their little shoes.
In the opinion of a columnist for the official press, "
it is extremely rare that this kind of investigation does not find anyone responsible and that no sanction is necessary
".
In other words, heads could fall.
As was the case for two health officials, sacked following the discovery
of Covid-19 cases in Zhengzhou
.
The alert of the "three suspensions"
The investigators will have to analyze the response of the public authorities following the torrential rains of this late afternoon of July 20, which still mark the inhabitants of the provincial capital where 200 millimeters of precipitation fell in less than an hour.
They will also have to measure whether the disaster could be anticipated further.
Witnesses said that the waters filled the city's tunnels in about ten minutes, which had already raised doubts about
the first tolls of the victims
.
Some were surprised at work, others in transport and in particular in the partially flooded metro.
Given the color of the sky, the weather office had nevertheless launched the so-called “three suspensions” alert, asking precisely for the ban on gatherings, the closure of schools and businesses, according to the
Caixin
newspaper
which has since deleted its article .
It's a shame, @caixin's tweet has been deleted (screenshot below).
The article was very interesting on the validation scheme of weather alerts and their transformation into prevention measures.
pic.twitter.com/MSc1LZzp2e
- Stéphane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) July 29, 2021
"
Learn from the disaster
"
This type of flooding usually occurs after prolonged rains that fill river basins.
Except this time the water level rose very quickly.
The equivalent of a year of rain fell in three days in 1,663 townships with more than 14.5 million inhabitants.
One and a half million people have been displaced, economic losses are estimated at nearly 12 billion euros for the whole of this province, the most populous in China.
According to the
China New
agency
, the team led by the Ministry of Emergency Management will "
learn from the disaster and propose measures to improve prevention and relief
".
As in Wuhan in spring 2020, this investigation launched by the central government is also a way of allaying the resentment of some of the victims concerning a possible lack of anticipation of the local authorities.
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Also to listen: China: after the floods, villages still under water
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China
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Xi Jinping