Xi chairs leadership meeting on flood control

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday chaired a leadership meeting on the flood control and relief work.

Rescuers are on the way to transfer trapped people in Sanjiao Township in Yongxiu County, east China's Jiangxi Province, July 13, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi stressed putting people's lives and property first and taking more forceful measures to do a good job in flood control and relief work, at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Since June, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, Party committees and governments at all levels, relevant departments, the armed forces, cadres and the people have worked together to yield positive results in flood control and relief work, Xi said.

He said the work concerns the safety of people's lives and property, as well as food, economic, social and national security, and it is very important to do it well because this year is crucial in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and fighting poverty.

Xi stressed the importance of strengthening coordination and cooperation because the rainfall in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River remains heavy, while relatively severe floods could occur in other areas, including the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River.

The CPC Central Committee has paid great attention to this year's flood control and rescue work, the meeting said.

On May 19, Xi chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and ordered preparations to prevent and control floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the meeting said.

Xi also issued many instructions on coordinating epidemic containment efforts with flood control work, ordering Party committees and governments at all levels to go all out to save lives and safeguard property.

The meeting stressed the need to bring out the advantages of the country's evolving disaster prevention and relief mechanism to enhance cooperation among all relevant departments and give full play to the expertise of those involved in the fight against floods.

Hydrological and meteorological forecasts should be done timely and accurately, while more efforts must be made to improve the forecasting of secondary disasters, especially torrential rains, typhoons, mountain floods and mudslides, and make such forecasts accessible to all villagers in the counties.

Yu Fengying (2nd R), leader of the woman volunteers, serves mung bean soup for an armed policeman in Jiangjialing Village, Poyang Town of east China's Jiangxi Province, July 11, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

The meeting also underlined the necessity of ensuring the safety of key dams and other major infrastructure facilities, and called for quick responses in disaster relief to minimize all kinds of losses.

Epidemic prevention work must be well coordinated with flood prevention and disaster relief work to avoid a rebound in the novel coronavirus outbreak, it said.

Efforts should be made to restore order in productivity as early as possible, said the meeting, urging timely repair of damaged water, electricity, transportation and telecommunication facilities to facilitate post-disaster reconstruction.

The meeting also stressed that poverty alleviation work must be properly advanced along with post-disaster reconstruction so as to prevent people from falling into or back into poverty because of flood disasters.

It said that the country needs to enhance its disaster prevention capability comprehensively and will include capacity building on disaster prevention in its 14th Five-Year Plan.