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(1) El Nino Brings Floods to Southeast China
[CND, 03/26/98] Government officials warned of severe spring and summer
flooding in the lower Yangtze River basin due to the effects of the weather
phenomenon El Nino, AFP and UPI reported from Beijing on Tuesday. Jiangxi,
Hunan, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, all along the lower reach of the
Yangtze River, have received four times the normal amount of rain this
winter. The Yangtze River dykes have collapsed at 16 places along a
two-mile stretch around Jiujiang city in Jiangxi, threatening nearly one
million people, a fifth of the city's population. Ganjiang River, a
tributary of the Yangtze, has flooded 20,000 hectares of farmland,
affecting 130,000 residents. The struggle against deadly floods continues
to suffer from poor or outdated infrastructure and the lack of funds to
upgrade. (Weihe GUAN, YIN De An)