A flood barrier is reinforced with waterproof material as the water level of a river continues to rise in Poyang county, Jiangxi province, on Saturday. (ZHANG HAOBO/XINHUA)
President Xi Jinping urged more effective flood response measures and all-out efforts to protect people's lives and assets as China upgraded its national emergency response for flood control to level II, the second-highest in the country's four-tier response system.
In an instruction released on Sunday, Xi pointed out that waters in the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, as well as the Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake and Taihu Lake, had exceeded warning levels, and the flood control situation is grim.
Xi said the severe flood disaster in Chongqing municipality and Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces has caused casualties and losses of assets.
