The country of China was a vibrant agricultural hub in the early 18th century. The agriculturists cultivated on every available fertile piece of land. Their activities disrupted wetlands and Nanyang trees were felled to make way for farming. Deforestation and destruction of riparian regions became the order of the day. Flooding became a common problem during the heavy rains. Consequently, China experienced a massive flood in the year of 1931. According to Wright (2017), the population had become too large and the environment had been severely damaged. The flood happened when the banks of rivers Yangzi, Huai, The Yellow River and Grand Canal broke. This resulted in devastating floods that displaced over 52 million Chinese residents. Additionally, upto 2 million people lost their lives in the floods. A majority of the country was affected by the floods which saw 8 provinces adversely affected (Wright, 2017).
Once the magnitude of the flood was established, the Chinese government set up the National Flood Release Commission (NFRC). This body was composed of different specialists including local epidemiologists and health workers. The team was joined by foreign experts such as the famous aviators Charles, Anne Lydndberg as well as Charles Todd who was a hydraulic engineer. John Hope Simpson was in charge of the NFRC and he spearheaded all efforts to assist the displaced under the League of Nations refugee program. The international community as well as the parts of the nation that were not affected by the floods took part in the rescue and charity operations that were to ease the impact of the humanitarian crisis
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The government first attempted to mitigate against further flooding by employing a modern scientific approach to disaster management in the Guadong region. The health workers took care if the injured and the epidemiologists managed the living conditions to prevent an outbreak of water based diseases. Make shift temporary accommodation was also put in place to serve the needs of the displaced. The aviators were also required to conduct an aerial survey of the region affected by the floods. Their findings guided search and rescue action and gave direction to the rest of the team. The NFRC was funded by the US government in order to acquire a loan that would be used to purchase flour and wheat. The Chinese troops has to counter the Japanese troops in order to grant the purchased foods safe entry into the region.
The NFRC also has to counter communists as relief food was transported on boats. This was because much of the infrastructure and communication setups were destroyed by the floods. The communists sometimes diverted the food reserves and kidnapped the relief workers for their own benefit. Part of the efforts of the NFRC included spearheading the reconstruction of dykes. This was done in the following year so as to prevent further flooding in the future. Through this move, the NFRC provided an employment opportunity to about 1.1 million workers. The new Nanjing government gave precedence to the ongoing need for food production while they continued to fund development projects under the NFRC. They put in place a rural economic policy that guided new farming techniques and agricultural advances.(Courtney, 2017)
The China Flood of 1931 showed the extent to which environmental disasters could render disaster management efforts useless. The floods in question would have been better managed by managing the natural resources in a sustainable way. Furthermore, the government efforts through the NFRC were hindered by insufficient funding and the resulting humanitarian crisis in the camps. Finally, the flooding disaster taught the nation and the world that a disaster management fund needs to be set aside from every fiscal year in order to be prepared in case of emergency. The security and civil service personnel also need to be well trained in order to build capacity that will be used to counter such tragedies.
References
Courtney, C. (2017). Governing Disasters: A Comparative Analysis of the 1931, 1954 and 1998 Middle-Yangzi Floods in Hubei. In Governance, Domestic Change, and Social Policy in China (pp. 67-102). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Wright, T. (2017). Legitimacy and Disaster: Responses to the 1932 Floods in North Manchuria. Modern China, 43(2), 186-216.
