![]() ![]() There is absolutely no doubt that had the Three Gorges and other dams not been constructed, flood damages in China during high rainfalls years, including this year, would have been significantly higher. Major dams like Three Gorges were constructed, having flood control as an important objective. The main policy was to construct large dams which could effectively store flood waters. While floods became a serious concern, the solutions then proposed went only part of the way to solving the problem. In terms of national policies, flooding was recognised as a major problem during the post-1995 period when each of the two floods in 19 caused several thousand deaths and billions of dollars in economic damages. A serious Yangtze flood has major implications not only for China but also for the world by disrupting manufacturing and transportation links as well as the global supply chain. It is also the most important water artery in terms of the economy and development. The Yangtze is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world. In Yangtze Basin, it has been 27 per cent higher than average. This is primarily because rainfall in China this year has been 21 per cent higher than average. Damages incurred are already significant. It appears that the 2016 floods are likely to enter into Chinese record books as some of the most severe. The bad news is, the economic costs of floods are steadily increasing and are likely to increase in the foreseeable future. The good news is that the death toll from floods in China has steadily declined due to government actions like the construction of dams, dikes and levees, early warning systems and prompt evacuation measures. Earlier, one of the important tests of good rulers was their ability to protect their citizens from the ravages of floods. In tenth place is the flood of June to July 1996 which caused 2,775 deaths and economic damage of $19 billion in 2014 USD.įlooding has been a perennial and recurrent problem in China. It caused 829 deaths and losses of $31.1 billion in 2014 USD. The sixth most costly global flood was also in China, during July to August 2010. Equally, because of population density, all three Chinese floods resulted in high fatalities compared to the other seven floods elsewhere where deaths were in the hundreds.Īt global ranking number two is the July-August flood of 1998, which resulted in 3,656 deaths and an economic loss of $43.7 billion in 2014 USD. However, the country which has the potential to disrupt the global supply chains the most because of floods is China, followed by Brazil, Russia, and India.īecause of topography, high population, urbanisation and tremendous economic growth during the past decades, China has had three of the ten most costly global floods since 1950. The 2011 flood in Thailand first brought this problem to global attention. These losses do not include disruptions to global supply chains when industries located in flood plains are affected by floods. The country incurring the highest losses is China, followed by the USA and India. According to the United Nations, over the 20-year period between 19, 157,000 people died due to floods and another 2.3 billion were affected.Ĭurrently, global average annual flood losses are estimated at $104 billion. ![]() It is a little-known fact among the general public and politicians that floods cause more damage each year globally than any other form of natural disaster. With China in the midst of one of its worst flood episodes in history Asit K Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada look at the significant social and economic costs of floods, and what can be done about them. ![]()
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