Premier Li Keqiang urged intensifying flood control and disaster relief work during a work conference for flood prevention, which was held in Yueyang city of Central China’s Hunan province on July 5.

This year, the rainy season arrived earlier than usual, with heavy downpours, causing water levels to rise in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and over 200 lakes surpassed their alert levels.

Facing the urgent need for flood control, Premier Li warned not to merely rely on water conservancy facilities but to take precautions to combat serious flooding this year.

The Premier called upon related authorities to take every measure possible to secure the safety of people’s lives as well as major flood control facilities.

He then stressed guarding possible basin-wide floods and secondary disasters, strengthening the coordinated operation of varied water conservancy projects and conducting flood storage and discharge.

The Premier called for closely monitoring weather and flooding changes, pinpointing and rooting out safety issues in a timely manner. He also asked related departments to share information on flood control and scientifically forecast the trend of flooding in order to reduce casualties and losses as much as possible.

Premier Li urged more efforts to improve overall flood control and disaster relief work, while combating the current flooding.

Premier Li urged local governments to shore up weaknesses in cities’ underground pipelines and small-scale water conservancy projects. He called for not only more investment from the government, but also promoting reform, innovating systems, easing market access, and attracting social capital.

It is crucial to summarize the flood control work, improve related mechanisms, and reinforce emergency management, said the Premier, who stressed that work on disaster prevention and relief must be done early and on target.

We should strengthen responsibility and cooperation, and cooperation should be enhanced between the flood control and drought relief office and river basin management agencies, said the Premier, adding that officials who fail to perform their duties and cause major loss or injuries should be held accountable.

The Premier said efforts should be made to improve the military-civilian collaboration mechanism, supporting the People’s Liberation Army and People’s Armed Police forces to participate in the flood control and disaster relief work.

Vice-Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jing also attended the meeting.