BEIJING: Large rain has lashed more than 10 metropolitan areas in the Chinese state of Shandong since the weekend, inundating roads, disrupting traffic plus renewing calls for much better drainage in built-up areas where concrete and asphalt trap water.
The elements bureau issued thunderstorm alerts on Monday (Jun 27) as vehicles in the northeastern province were stuck in waist-deep drinking water, a video posted at the Weibo social media site showed.
China’s second-most-populous province with more than 100 million people, Shandong has reported disruption to train services since Sunday after it was hit simply by its first weighty downpours of the rainy season, which started weeks ago within southern China.
Every summer, Customer prone to floods that trigger landslides plus swamp farmlands and cities, where quick development and urbanisation often block away natural drainage techniques, scientists say.
Climate change is usually exacerbating the influence.
Weather expert Zhang Jianyun informed a climate alter and extreme climate forum on Weekend that it was necessary to strategy and intensively make use of underground spaces just for drainage, storage plus water-treatment, especially in large cities.
“Give floods a way out there, ” Zhang mentioned.
Low-impact advancement and construction of “sponge cities” would also help reduce flood risk, Zhang mentioned.
China launched a programme within 2015 to create “sponge cities” that can safely retain and drain more rainwater, along with permeable asphalt and pavements among the potential technological solutions.
Official data shows that about 98 per cent of China’s 654 major cities are usually vulnerable to flooding plus water-logging, with rapid growth in current decades creating metropolitan sprawls that covered floodplains with impermeable concrete.
Final summer, Henan’s provincial capital of Zhengzhou experienced record rain fall that paralysed the city along with floods that killed more than 300 people.
Read more on: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/heavy-rain-floods-china-sponge-cities-2773081
.