every year, china s flooding seems worse, and official statistics appear to confirm it. in 2011, the country recorded around six floods a month during the summer. but this year, there are ten times as many. the impact has even struck china s overall food supply. in august, 40% of the famous wuchang rice crop was wiped out by flooding. translation: i ve never seen floods here in all my life. - this is the first time. translation: when i saw the water hit here, i cried. | oui cfops are gone. i lost everything. it s hard to calculate. then in the south, where flooding is supposed to happen, there are fears of a drought closing in. li chunshui grew up next to poyang lake and drives a boat out to luoxingdun island when there s enough water. translation: this year s
you re live with bbc news. recent flooding in china has claimed more than 80 lives, and also caused vast economic damage. what has also shocked many there is that the floods struck parts of the country that re not normally subject to these types of disasters. chinese scientists are blaming climate change, warning that extreme weather events are hitting the country more frequently, and with greater devastation than ever before. our china correspondent stephen mcdonell visited luoxingdun island, in the country s flood plain in the south. and also, to the town of zhuozhou, in the north, which is normally flood free. here is his special report. china s recent floods hit hard in parts of the country not accustomed to them. and its meteorological administration says both extreme temperatures and precipitation have definitely increased in recent decades. it s one thing to talk about climate change
this man grew up next to poyang lake and drives a boat out to luoxingdun island when there s enough water. translation: this year s water level is very low. i old people say this has only occurred once before, in the early 1950s. since the song dynasty 1,000 years ago, the temple has been surrounded by water during the rainy season. recent droughts have exposed it much earlier. a couple of months ago, all of this was underwater. but as the waters have receded, the island behind me has become accessible by land. and this historic site has become something of an environmental barometer to measure whether water levels are where they should be at any given time of year. extreme weather is focusing attention on climate change in china, but can this huge country combine with the rest of the world quickly enough to do something about it? stephen mcdonell, bbc
and emergency services then took them to hospital, where they were pronounced dead. next of kin have been informed and police are appealing for anyone with footage from phones, dash cams or doorbells that may help paint a picture of what happened here on saturday night. i reporter, mairead smyth. recent flooding in china has claimed more than 80 lives and also caused vast economic damage. what has also shocked many there, is that the floods struck parts of the country that aren t normally subject to these types of natural disasters. chinese scientists are blaming climate change, warning that extreme weather events are hitting the country more frequently, and with greater devastation than ever before. our china correspondent stephen mcdonell visited luoxingdun island, in the country s flood plain in the south and also, to the town of zhuozhou in the north, which is normally flood free. here is his special report.
chinese scientists are blaming climate change, warning that extreme weather events are hitting the country more frequently, and with greater devastation than ever before. our china correspondent stephen mcdonell visited luoxingdun island, in the country s flood plain in the south, and also, to the town of zhuozhou in the north, which is normally flood free. here is his special report. china s recent floods hit hard in parts of the country not accustomed to them. and its meteorological administration says both extreme temperatures and precipitation have definitely increased in recent decades. it s one thing to talk about climate change in the abstract, quite another to consider real human impacts. this whole town is having to rebuild after the recent floods and all these businesses, they ve been completely trashed by the floodwaters, and the people here, they don t know how they re