Since last year, parts of southwestern provinces (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangxi) have gone through a consecutive four-season severe drought, which plagues tens of millions of people with difficult access to drinking water, and large areas of farmland yielding no harvest. Response to the drought disaster hence becomes the top priority of the localities.
In response to the severe drought, the Red Cross Society of China takes intense actions to involve itself in the operation against the consequences of the disaster.
On 3rd April, a fundraising show co-hosted by RCSC was held with the theme of “Our Response to Drought Disaster” starting from 8:00 p.m. The RCSC collected in this party RMB 81.13 million yuan, of which RMB 41,60 million yuan for the headquarter and RMB 39,53 million yuan for other 14 provincial branches.
On 9th April, the National HQs of RCSC decided to allocate RMB 1 million yuan to each of its provincial branches in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi to support their procurement of food, drinking water and other necessities and construction of drinking water facilities to drought-affected people. To date the RCSC HQs has contributed a total of RMB 8.733 million yuan in cash and in kind to drought-affected southwestern regions.
The Guizhou Provincial Branch of RCSC carried out a Distribution of Water, Food and Care Campaign, which through deployment of 16 batches of 21 response teams and assessment teams to deliver relief goods and funds to disaster areas, including 400 tons of rice, 200 water pumps, 10 generators, 2.97 barrels of purified drinking water with a total value of RMB 4.594 million Yuan. The branch also cooperated with the provincial fire brigade in deployment of 170 times of fire engines to deliver drinking water to affected regions. The branch benefited a total of nearly 100,000 affected people by meeting the shortage of drinking water and food.
Rice and drinking water valued at RMB 500,000 yuan supported by the RCSC HQs to Yunnan Province had been distributed to affected people in the most severely affected Luliang County in Qujing Prefecture and Mengzi County in Honghe Prefecture as of the end of March.
The severest drought in the past century has brought adverse impact on the lives and livelihood in the affected communities. In Xinzhai Community of Chengmin Village in Luliang County, all the crops in the fields have whithered. Everyday barrels of 143 households with total population of 460 queue up in a long line before a water tap with very limited discharge. In Xiaoxin Village of Lengquan Township in Mengzi County, the water cellar that the villagers depend on is now dried up, and the local government has to organize the villagers to fetch water from 20 kilometers away at a price of RMB 260 per cubic meter with a limited ration of 15 kilograms per person per day.
The RCSC HQs made urgent allocation of RMB 500,000 yuan to Yuannan Province, which despatched two response teams to the most severely affected areas in Luliang County and Mengzi County to direct local branches to procure rice and drinking water (86,000 kilograms of rice and 7470 tanks of drinking water). These goods have met the urgent needs of 2563 households, which highly commended the Red Cross and the caring donors that sent the timely assistance.
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