By Nicolle LaFleur, International Federation East Asia Regional Delegation
Since mid-June, more than 100 million Chinese have been affected by some of the worst summer flooding to hit the country in half a century. Officials say 425 people have been killed, while 110 are missing. An estimated 3.6 million people have been forced from their homes.
"I have lost everything," says Pei-tian Peng, a 57-year-old farmer in Anhui Province. "This will be a most difficult year for us," he remarks as he sits along an embankment of the flooded farmland near his village of Hou He.
Flanked by temporary shelter tents, he stares across the water that now covers his 1.3 acre farm plot - his sole source of income.
Peng is one of nearly 15 million people who have been affected by flooding in Anhui province in recent days. Torrential rains, dumping up to 584 mm of water in a 24-hour time period, have saturated this and many other areas of Huainan Prefecture, where Hou He village is located.
As a result, the residents are looking at a long and trying time ahead. For the time being, many are stuck living in tents with no source of income and little food supplies.
River levels remain dangerously high and the land is so saturated it cannot absorb excess standing water. Experts say the river levels are likely to remain very high for the next month or two, with more heavy rains expected in the coming days and weeks.
This year is considered to have brought some of the worst flooding in more than 50 years. At least 30 people have been killed in Anhui alone, and flooding along the Huai River - the third longest river in China - has already forced the evacuation of more than a half a million residents, while destroying 71,000 homes and 2.25 million hectares of farmland.
Current economic losses are estimated at around $12 billion yuan ($1.6 million USD), a majority of which is accounted for in Anhui.
At the same time, Hubei and Sichuan provinces have also been hit hard by this year's rains. Hubei, host to a long stretch of the Yangtze River and known as the "Province of Lakes", has suffered severe flooding since late June. At least 40 people there are dead, with another 11 missing, and nearly one million people affected.
Sichuan Province has seen the highest death toll, with at least 42 dead and 26 missing. Flooding and landslides have affected nearly 1.1 million people and caused the evacuation of more than 300,000 people, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The Xinhua news agency reports that the government is mobilizing nearly 380,000 people, including People's Liberation Army troops, to provide immediate relief.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) is also responding to the immediate needs of flood victims in 13 provinces, providing supplies worth over 10 million yuan ($1.4 million USD).
A national appeal has been launched by the RCSC, seeking supplies and financial assistance to further help victims in these and other regions.
In Anhui alone, more than 300,000 people are facing shortages of clean water, while concerns are mounting, as the rains continue, that displaced residents will have to cope with long-term food shortages due to extensive destruction of farmland.
"I have nothing left here," says Peng. "My four children have all left for the big cities to find work," he adds, commenting on the increasingly common trend of urban migration, which plagues socio-economic stability within China.
The fact that Peng's family lives in an area that has experienced massive flooding six times since 1991, means his children long ago recognized the risks of trying to follow in their father's footsteps.
Now without his children by his side, Mr. Peng is left to face recovery and rehabilitation alone.
After surviving weeks of standing water in his home and saturating his land, he will have very little with which to start. His economic hardship will extend into the months and years ahead, as he will try to rehabilitate his land and recover his most basic necessities without a source of income.
Unfortunately, each year floods ravage China's river basins, and it is the poorest of the poor that suffer most.
They face a worrisome future of food and water shortages, lost homes and possessions, and a lack of means for income generation. With more than 600 million people in China living on the equivalent of, or less than two dollars a day, a constant cycle of natural disasters in China forces even more to fall into, or deeper into, poverty.
This is why long-term community security is also a critical element of the Red Cross' plan for recovery, including disaster preparedness and risk reduction strategies that include evacuation and mitigation activities, as well as income generation options during and after disasters.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has been supporting the RCSC in developing disaster preparedness programmes year round, and is currently supporting flood relief efforts in Anhui, Sichuan and Hubei through its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund.
Last year, the RCSC was able to not only provide immediate relief supplies when severe floods struck, but they also rebuilt 1,200 houses, four schools and 15 health clinics in seven provinces.
For local farmers, like Peng, this type of support is essential for both their short-term and long-term survival. And with more rains in the forecast, it seems the work has only just begun.