Local govts have to learn lessons from floods

A man pushes a wooden basin in which his granddaugter sits through a flooded road at Lianhua village, Duchang county, East China's Jiangxi province, on June 27.[Photo/Xinhua]

Doubtelessly, facing the flooding across vast swathes of the country, local governments and residents have devoted themselves to flood relief efforts. Yet there are problems and chaotic situations that should arouse our concern, Ifeng.com comments on Wednesday.

If local governments did better in warning of the floods in some rural areas, more lives could have been saved.

The devastating damage caused by floods have exposed that many local governments were not prepared for a natural disaster.

Worse, with the fast and accelerating pace of urbanization, many villages are almost empty of young adults, who have long left to work in cities. As a result, some villages had insufficient hands to fight the floods.

The chaotic situations and problems exposed over the past weeks should teach these governments to be better prepared.

More importantly, local governments need to communicate more with ordinary residents so that when a flood does happen they can work with each other to mitigate its effects.

Forecasts predict there will be more heavy rainfall this summer and the danger of floods still exists. These lessons need to be learned quickly to prevent further loss of life.