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MANILA, PHILIPPINES (13 July 2004) - ADB will help protect the People's Republic of China (PRC) from the destructive effects of floods by developing an integrated flood mitigation and flood management strategy, through a technical assistance (TA) grant approved for US$500,000.

The PRC has experienced more than 1,000 flood disasters in 2,000 years of recorded history. The Yangtze River floods of 1931 affected 28.5 million people and killed 145,000. More recently, in 1998, flooding of the Yangtze and Songhua-Liao river basins killed 3,500, with monetary losses estimated at $30 billion.

The poorest members of society are most at risk from such calamities. In rural areas the poor often live in areas without adequate protection from floods or without access to irrigation. In urban locations the poor tend to live in low-lying poorly drained areas susceptible to flooding.

In the wake of the 1998 flood, the Government announced a policy that moves toward natural resource management as a long-term, holistic way of flood plain management. It signals a shift from dependence on structural measures for reducing flood damage to a balanced approach using both structural and nonstructural measures.

Structural measures, such as dikes, keep floodwaters away from people, while nonstructural measures comprise land-use to keep people away from floodwaters, development and building controls to limit the hazard and damage to property, flood emergency measures to deal with overwhelming floods, and flood insurance mechanisms.

"Structural measures are required for immediate protection, but balancing flood mitigation and floodplains management are most effective in reducing flood risk and flood damage in the long run," says KyeongAe Choe, an ADB Senior Project Specialist.

"The Government therefore has to move from mere flood control to adopting an integrated flood management strategy that will promote the sustainable economic growth and social development of flood-prone areas."

The TA will draw up a framework for flood mitigation and floodplains management, balancing structural and nonstructural measures.

It will also recommend action plans to integrate flood mitigation and floodplains management, producing a handbook on effective flood management for policymakers and local government officials.

The Ministry of Water Resources will execute the TA, which will be carried out over 12 months beginning September 2004. The Government is contributing $125,000 toward the TA's total cost of $625,000.

Read the full TA report.

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