A person takes photos while water is released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze river, to relieve flood pressure in Yichang, central China’s Hubei province on July 19, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the Chinese Water Resources Ministry (CWRM), China’s main flood season in the south officially began on June 1; since May, at least 97 rivers have exceeded warning levels, an increase of about 10 percent from a year earlier as of May 27.
Official data showed that 89 rivers were flooded above the warning level and 3.709 million people were affected in 18 provinces, including Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, etc.
In the Yangtze River basin, dozens of rivers in the Wu River system (a major tributary of the Upper Yangtze), the Three Gorges region, the Dongting Lake system, and the Poyang Lake system had floods above the warning level, and the entire Xiang River in the Dongting Lake system recorded floodwaters exceeding the warning level.
In 2020, the Yangtze River Basin experienced severe flooding, the worst since 1998, with the highest water level in Chongqing since 1981, and a rare occurrence of flooding in the urban area of the city.
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