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China, Pakistan Brace for More Rain After Landslide, Flooding
2010-08-09 08:06:26.604 GMT
By Madelene Pearson
Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- China and Pakistan prepared for more
rain as Premier Wen Jiabao called for "all-out" efforts to
rescue survivors from a landslide and as Pakistan battled the
deadliest floods in more than eight decades. Drought and fires
scorched Russia.
Flooding that started in Pakistan on July 22 has affected
12 million people and killed more than 1,500, according to the
Edhi Foundation, the nation's biggest rescue service, while
crops from cotton to rice and sugarcane have been damaged.
Heavy rains in China's western province of Gansu triggered
a landslide late on Aug. 7 that killed at least 127 residents
and left 1,300 missing. Wildfires in Russia have scorched an
area three times the size of Luxembourg and 52 people have died
amid the worst drought in 50 years.
"Weather patterns are becoming more extreme," said Greg
Smith, founder of Global Commodities Ltd. with A$200 million
($184 million) under management. "You would expect these events
to be rarer -- they tend to be clustering more often," he said
from Adelaide, Australia today.
More downpours are forecast for today and tomorrow in the
southern portion of Gansu where the landslides occurred, said
the China Meteorological Administration. Flooding caused by
heavy rain has killed more than 1,450 people nationwide this
year as of Aug. 6, the most in more than a decade, according to
the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
In addition to Gansu, heavy rains are forecast today for
the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Qinghai,
Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan, the bureau said.
Indus Flooding
Flooding in northeastern China's Jilin province has killed
85 people and left 66 missing in the past two months, the
official Xinhua News agency reported.
In Pakistan, "urban flooding in Karachi is possible and
further heavy rain may aggravate Indus river flooding in
Sindh," the weather office said on its website yesterday.
Heavy downpours may spur flash inundations in northwest Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and parts of Punjab.
Floods have caused 200 billion rupees ($2.33 billion) of
losses in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the worst affected of
four provinces, Riaz Arshad, president of the Sarhad Chamber of
Commerce & Industry, said by telephone from Peshawar today. The
death toll may climb to 2,000 as many bodies haven't been found,
said Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of the Edhi Foundation.
Elsewhere in Asia, flooding in North Korea swept away crops,
houses and damaged power equipment, piling on hardship for a
country that already needs aid to feed its 24 million people.
More than 500 people are missing and 145 dead after flash floods
struck the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir in India, Press
Trust of India said yesterday.
Extreme Events
Climate change should be viewed as "threat multiplier,"
Nick Robins, head of the Climate Change Centre of Excellence at
HSBC Holdings Plc, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in
London. "It increases the likelihood of certain types of
extreme events."
In Russia, record temperatures are feeding the fires, many
in drained peat bogs that once produced 50 million metric tons
of fuel a year and are now mostly abandoned because of a lack of
demand. Temperatures of at least 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees
Fahrenheit) will plague central Russia through Aug. 13,
according to the state Hydrometeorological Center.
Grain prices jumped last week after Russia banned exports
as drought cut production. Wheat climbed to a 23-month high on
Aug. 6 and has advanced 72 percent in the past two months. Corn
rallied to a 13-month high on Aug. 5.
For Related News and Information:
Top commodity news: CTOP <GO>
Agricultural Supply & Demand Statistics: AGSD <GO>
--With assistance from Linzie Janis in London, Rishaad Salamat
in Hong Kong, John Liu in Beijing, Lyubov Pronina in Moscow,
Anwar Shakir in Peshawar, Khurrum Anis and Naween A. Mangi in
Karachi. Editor: James Poole
To contact the reporter on this story:
Madelene Pearson in Mumbai on +91-22-6633-9039 or
mpearson1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Poole at +65-6212-1551 or jpoole4@Bloomberg.net.
