Over the weekend, the ministries of finance and civil affairs have teamed up to allocate 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to fund flood relief work in Lankao County of central China's Henan Province and Dongming County of east China's Shandong Province where the flooding occurred.

The two regions were also given respectively 500 and 1,000 tents to house flooding victims.

Due to continuous heavy rain since mid-August, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been seen rising water levels and inundated the banks in Lankao County separately on September 18 and 20.

Despite the efforts of the local government against the floods in the ensuing days, the run-off from the Yellow River has submerged 4,000 hectares of farmland in 17 villages in Lankao County.

Nearly 18,000 people have suffered from the flooding, and the average water level in the area is close to one meter in depth.

Statistics showed that 74 bridges and 14 ravines were damaged and a few houses collapsed, causing direct economic losses of over 56.2 million yuan (US$6.7 million). No injury or death has been reported yet.

Waters from the Yellow River also continue to flood into Dongming County of Shandong.

So far, 96,800 people in 130 villages in Dongming have suffered from the flooding, and 12,000 hectares of farmland have been submerged with an average of 1.5 meters of accumulated water.

A team headed by Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju arrived at Dongming on Sunday to guide the rescue work there.

According to Cai Weichao, deputy head of Dongming County, disaster relief materials which include 40 tons of flour, 1,000 tents, 4,000 tons of coal and 20 tons of diesel oil have been sent to victims.

The rescue team in Dongming is now busy transferring villagers out of the flooded areas. Cai said that local senior citizens without family nearby had all been transferred to safe areas.

As the water levels in the flood areas are higher than that of the Yellow River now, rescue teams have also started to pump the floodwaters back into the river as of Monday.

(China Daily October 8, 2003)