Over $2.24 billion in road damage reported across 23 Chinese provinces.
July alone saw 52.2 billion yuan losses from floods, landslides, droughts.
Experts call for urgent climate adaptation, infrastructure investment, and disaster preparedness.
Extreme rainfall across swathes of China caused over 16 billion yuan ($2.24 billion) in road damage, the transport ministry said on Wednesday, highlighting how climate risks are placing additional pressure on the ailing economy's public purse.
The preliminary estimate covers damage to roads since the start of flood season, Li Ying, a ministry spokesperson, told reporters, and includes 23 provinces, regions and municipalities - more than two-thirds of China's administrative divisions.
Flood season officially began on July 1, according to China's water resources ministry, and brought record rainfall to the country's north and south.
Deepening Economic and Infrastructure Challenge
According to Reuters, China is already struggling with flooding, with over 16 billion yuan ($2.24 billion) in road damage. The preliminary estimate includes 23 provinces., regions and municipalities—constituting China’s administrative divisions. The transport ministry reported that the extreme rainfall, which began on July 1, has overwhelmed infrastructure indicating the increasing financial strain on the nation's economy.
As a response, the government has allocated 5.8 billion yuan in disaster relief since April, with 540 million yuan allocated to local authorities by the transport and finance ministries specifically for emergency road repairs.
However, these measures are insufficient to counterbalance the mounting climate-related costs. July alone recorded economic losses worth 52.2 billion yuan due to several natural disasters, including floods, landslides, earthquakes and droughts.
China’s local governments, already burdened with trillions of dollars in debt, are ill-equipped to manage these increasing climate-related damages. The current situation calls for comprehensive climate adaptation strategies and financial reforms to support resilience against future disasters.
Experts warn that without significant investment in infrastructure and disaster preparedness, China's economic recovery could be jeopardized, further exacerbating the challenges posed by climate change.
Infrastructure for Beijing Exposed
China’s capital Beijing has experienced a series of floods in the last month with torrential rain equating a year’s worth of rain in a single week triggering flash floods that submerged villages and killed many.
According to another report by Reuters, the floods exposed the weaknesses in the rural emergency response infrastructure for Beijing, whose urban core is enveloped by several rural districts.
Pointing at this shift from Beijing’s history of being dry to battling incessant rains, experts said that the region remains insufficiently prepared for an increasingly wet future. Chinese experts are increasingly calling for city planners to prioritise "ecological resilience" given the disastrous effects of climate change.
