China suffers food shortages as snow continues

China suffers food shortages as snow continues


Angela Balakrishnan and agencies
Thursday January 31, 2008
Guardian Unlimited


China is facing food shortages and price rises as blizzards destroy crops and shut down transport.
If the bad weather persists, China's economic losses could run into billions of yuan, threatening the country's growth this year. The national weather forecaster said the freezing conditions would continue for the next 10 days.

The heaviest snowfall for 50 years has severely hit central and southern China, which provide most of the country's winter fruit and vegetables.

"The impact of the snow disaster on winter crop production is extremely serious," said Chen Xiwen, the deputy director of the Communist party's financial group. "The impact on fresh vegetables and on fruit in some places has been catastrophic."
Chen said the overall effect on agriculture would depend on how long the storms lasted and whether they moved into northern China, which produces most of the country's wheat.

The civil affairs ministry said 22bn yuan (£1.5bn) had been lost since the storms started on January 10, bringing factory production to a standstill in some areas.

Wholesalers in Beijing said only 20% of the usual vegetable supply was reaching the city, and prices in some parts of the country had more than doubled.

Millions of travellers stranded at crowded railway stations in east China's Zhejiang province were receiving counselling from psychologists, state media told Reuters today.

The municipal government of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, set up a team of 16 psychologists as tempers frayed among workers anxious to get home before new year celebrations begin next week.

Zhao Guogiu, the in charge, was urging passengers not to cry and encouraged them to find other transport home.

The government has attempted to put a positive slant on the bad news.

The premier, Wen Jiabao, told officials in Guangzhou: "After 30 years of reform and opening up, we've accumulated a strong material foundation and, as long as we're vigorously organised, we will be fully able to vanquish the current hardship."

The official People's Daily newspaper wrote: "When one place suffers misfortune, aid comes from all directions. That is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation and even more it is a vivid portrait of the superiority of the socialist system."

Television channels have broadcast pictures of Wen visiting the affected areas and apologising for the disruption, along with stories of tireless railway workers and police and news of six repairmen who died fixing electricity power lines.

The updates have been accompanied by an uplifting song - "We all belong to one family, a loving family".

State media reported that 200,000 people were expected to get on the move today as power was slowly restored and trucks stuck on icy roads were freed.

The civil aviation regulator said all main airports were open.

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Floods claim more lives, wreak havoc in Bolivia

Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:18am EST

LA PAZ, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Flooding and torrential rains have killed 40 people in Bolivia since November, wrecking highways, crops and thousands of homes in the impoverished country, officials said on Wednesday.

Nearly 400,000 people living in the Andean city of La Paz have been forced to ration their drinking water after mudslides damaged water pipes last week, and the mayor said the shortages could last until March.

State television showed people wading in chest-high water in towns in the central province of Cochabamba, where local media said three young sisters had drowned.

In eastern Santa Cruz province, the head of the local chamber of commerce said the damage to soybean crops and highways was estimated at between $200 million and $500 million, local newspapers reported.

The flooding is blamed on the La Nina weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which has exacerbated Bolivia's rainy season. The local meteorological service forecast that rains will continue for at least another month.

The situation has worsened this week, and 10 people were killed in the past five days. That brought the death toll to 40 since the heavy rains began two months ago.

President Evo Morales has asked for aid from neighboring countries to meet the food and medical needs of the more than 32,000 families affected by the flooding. Brazil and Chile have sent helicopters to help in rescue efforts.

Government spokesman Alex Contreras said Morales had sent all his cabinet ministers to assess flood damage and help victims in different parts of the country, which is the poorest in South America. (Reporting by Carlos Quiroga and Hilary Burke; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Mekong Delta crops hit by rice diseases

(31-01-2008)

HA NOI — Nearly 10 per cent of winter-spring crops in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta suffered from rice diseases, said Nguyen Quang Minh, director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry’s Plant Protection Department.

He told Viet Nam News yesterday that more than 91,000ha of crops were attacked by brown plant hoppers, small insects causing yellow and stunt rice diseases, an increase of almost 21,000ha over last January.

The worst hit provinces were Hau Giang, Vinh Long, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Long An with an insect density of 750-3,000 insects per sq.m. The density was as bad as 6,000-8,000 insects per sq.m in some areas, said Minh.

The department forecasted that brown plant hoppers would quickly spread out during Tet, from February 5 to 11, when the crops would be at the most important period of development.

Incidents of rice blast disease also increased this year, affecting around 50,000ha of crops, said Minh.

Rice blast disease is a disease caused by fungus which results in yellow spots on leaves, reduces the process of photosynthesis and affects yields.

The department has asked provincial-level agriculture and rural development departments and plant protection centres in southern provinces to tighten supervision over rice diseases and instruct farmers how to protect their crops.

The Cuu Long Delta has a total of 1.6 million ha of crops. — VNS

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Heavy fog hits frozen S China, adding to transport woes

www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-04 15:49:21
Special Report: China's war on snow havoc

BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Parts of south China affected by the worst winter weather in 50 years were shrouded in heavy fog on Monday morning, adding to traffic woes caused by snow and frost over the last three weeks.

Visibility was less than 100 meters in parts of Chongqing Municipality and the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said.

Meanwhile, a new wave of snow, rain and sleet is likely to hit parts of central and south China on Monday and Tuesday, including Chongqing and the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Yunnan and Guizhou, the CMA warned.

The heavy fog forced 50 flights to be postponed or cancelled at an airport in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, on Monday morning, local authorities said.

It also led to temporary expressway closures in parts of Zhejiang, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Jiangsu, the Ministry of Communications said.

The good news was the full reopening of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, a north-south trunk road, reopened on Monday morning, according to the ministry.

The last of the 6,000 vehicles trapped by snow over the past week was removed by 9 a.m. after days of hard de-icing work by 1,200 soldiers and armed police, the ministry said.

China Central Television (CCTV) footage showed vehicles moving along the expressway smoothly and quickly, indicating the fog did not affect the expressway traffic.

But millions of people, mostly migrant workers, who are hoping to return home for family gatherings during the Spring Festival holiday that starts on Thursday, are still stranded at train stations or in cities far away from their hometowns.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, 92,000 passengers were stranded at the railway station in the southern city of Guangzhou and another 15,000 at the railway station in Shanghai, according to the emergency command center under the State Council, China's cabinet.

Meanwhile, about 17,000 vehicles were stuck in nine sections of expressways in different parts of China, the center said in a statement.

The snow has been falling since mid-January, leading to death, structural collapse, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop destruction.

The snow havoc has hit 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, toppled 223,000 homes and damaged another 862,000, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry said almost 7.8 million people had been affected and at least 60 people had been killed.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has deployed 306,000 soldiers to remove ice on expressways and to help in other ways.

About 1.07 million militia and army reservists were also participating in the relief efforts.

In addition, more than 12,000 medical teams with 65,500 staff have been dispatched to snow-stricken areas, according to the Ministry of Health.

Zheng Guoguang, CMA head, blamed the La Nina phenomenon and abnormal atmospheric circulation for the disastrous weather that has left millions facing a cold, dark Lunar New Year holiday.

La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, a warming of the Pacific.

Zheng said the La Nina conditions developed in August throughout the tropical Pacific and strengthened at the fastest pace in 56 years. The average sea-surface temperature during the past six months was half a degree Celsius lower than normal years.

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Floods devastate Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador
1 day ago

LA PAZ (AFP) — Torrential rains have caused widespread flooding in southern Ecuador, eastern Bolivia and northern Argentina, with nearly 50 people killed and thousands made homeless, triggering international humantarian aid to the region.

In Bolivia, where some 45 people have been killed by incessant flooding since November, Japanese Ambassador Mitsunori Shirakawa Saturday presented President Evo Morales with 121,000 dollars' worth of food and first aid equipment for flood victims.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 families have been affected by the floods, with thousands evacuated from their homes in Bolivia's lowlands.

In Ecuador, divil defense officials have reported two children killed when they were swept away by turbulent rivers in the southern region, where thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa flew over the worst flooded areas in Esmeraldas and Canar provinces on Thursday. He promised initial government aid of 10 million dollars to help flood victims and begin infrastructure repairs especially to roads.

In northern Argentina, the Pilcomayo and other rivers flowing from waterlogged Bolivia have overflowed their banks leaving some 4,000 poeple stranded and forcing more than 100 to flee their homes.

Salta province Civil Protection undersecretary Gustavo Paul said the situation had improved on Saturday but warned of "the possibility of more flooding due to the persistent rain in southern Bolivia."

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Death toll in Brazil floods rises to nine

www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-04 10:29:46

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in the heavy rain-triggered floods that hit the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro late Saturday and early Sunday rose to nine with 12 others injured, local fire services said.

Authorities had reported eight dead and two injured earlier in the day, but the death toll rose as fire services reached more remote areas.

Three members of the same family died in Itaipava, a mountain town 70 km from state capital Rio de Janeiro. They were two brothers aged 5 and 12 and their 73-year-old grandmother.

Most of the victims were in the hillside neighborhood of Madame Machado, where rains caused landslips and flooding. Some of the dead were buried alive in their homes. A car was also buried in the landslides.

The Itaipava mayor's office has released 500,000 reales (nearly286,000 U.S. dollars) to help families hit by the rains. The neighborhoods of Estrada do Gentio, Estrada das Arcas and Benfica were also affected.

The Civil Defense authority said the equivalent of three weeks worth of rain had fallen in just a few hours.

"To give you an idea, 13 mm of water an hour fell on neighboring Petropolis and in Itaipava more than 135mm fell in less than an hour. It was a completely extreme situation and that is why there were deaths," said Colonel Jose Sant' Ana Mateus, from the state's Civil Defense Authority.

Fire crews used boats to rescue residents from their flooded homes. The rains also destroyed nearly 1 km of the Petropolis-Teresopolis Highway.

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