Since Thursday, torrential rains have hit the Guangdong province, emblematic of Chinese manufacturing power with its tens of thousands of export-oriented factories and which has some 127 million inhabitants.
Rainfall in recent days has caused rivers to swell to such a level that there are fears of “floods of the century”, authorities warned.
On Tuesday, the metropolis of Shenzhen was placed on red alert for several hours, the highest level of risk.
It was finally lifted following a significant improvement in weather conditions in this city of 17.7 million inhabitants, bordering Hong Kong.
Heavy rainfall in southern China is not unusual especially in summer, but occurs earlier in spring.
Already in September, Shenzhen was hit by torrential rains, the heaviest ever recorded since weather records began in 1952, according to state media.
Bad weather in recent days has left at least four dead in Guangdong, while 10 people are still missing, according to an official report revised upwards on Monday which has not changed.
In addition, 110,000 inhabitants of the province had to be relocated, according to figures communicated by the official Xinhua news agency.
Part of it was evacuated from Qingyuan, a town located about sixty kilometers from the provincial capital Canton, and crossed by the Bei River, a tributary of the Pearl River Delta.
Elsewhere, bad weather caused landslides in mountainous areas.
Army to the rescue
Aerial images of the province show homes surrounded by muddy waters that stretch for kilometers.
Others show a children’s playground and street signs submerged in muddy waters.
The army was called in to help clean up the damage.
In Foshan, a city near Guangzhou, a ship hit a bridge, Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing local authorities.
This incident, undoubtedly a consequence of the floods according to New China, threw the boat’s crew into the water.
Seven people were rescued but four remain missing, according to the agency.
Asia pays the high price
China has faced extreme weather conditions in recent months, exacerbated by climate change according to scientists.
Climate change caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases is making extreme weather events more frequent and more intense, these scientists say.
In China, “floods and droughts have increased significantly”, said Yin Zhijie, a forecaster from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, on state radio, worried about a “intensification of global warming”.
Parts of Guangdong have not seen such severe flooding at this time of year since 1954, according to Chinese state radio.
Asia has been “the region of the world most affected by disasters” linked to the weather in 2023, the UN said on Tuesday.
