Billions of rodents plague flood-stricken China

[Watchman]

Billions of rodents plague flood-stricken China


Last Updated: Thursday, July 12, 2007 | 8:21 PM ET
CBC News


Chinese residents armed with clubs, shovels and poison
are attempting to kill some of the estimated 2 billion
field mice and rats that are plaguing parts of the
flood-ravaged country,
Chinese news agencies reported Thursday.

A worker catches mice with his bare hands in the city of Yiyang on Saturday.
(EyePress/Associated Press)
The rodents have been driven from their holes by the
overflowing waters of Dongting Lake, a large body of
water in the southern Hunan province that is
surrounded by 22 counties, said the state media
network, Xinhua News Agency.
The agency said they are destroying countless
hectares of land and are considered a risk for
spreading disease.
China Central Television showed images
of residents in the city of Yiyang beating
the rodents with clubs and shovels. Others
were catching mice and rats in fishing nets
or laying down poison for them to eat.
Residents have killed about 2.3 million of the
rodents, burying them in deep pits filled with
lime in an attempt to prevent the spread of
disease, Xinhua said.
The news agency said there have been no
reports of disease yet, although about 1,000 cats
have died in the village of Binhu after eating poisoned mice.
Experts from the provincial Centre for Disease Control
and Prevention are being sent to the area to
monitor the situation.
While floods are affecting the Hunan province,
they are also ravaging central China.
Floods wash away tens of thousands of homes
An extremely rainy June has caused the waters
of the Huai River to overflow, destroying tens of
thousands of homes and ravaging an estimated
10,000 hectares of farmland.

Residents carry bags through flood waters in the
community of Fuyang, in China's Anhui province
on Thursday.Residents carry bags through flood
waters in the community of Fuyang, in China's
Anhui province on Thursday.
(EyePress/Associated Press)
Nearly 500,000 people have been evacuated from
their homes in the provinces of Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu.
Officials say the flooding, which is the worst the area
has seen in about 50 years, has caused about $1 billion
in economic damage so far.
Rescuers in boats have been working continuously to
gather stranded residents, while landslides triggered by
rain have killed more than 360 people.
The government has attempted to manage the flood
by diverting the water away from urban areas and into
farmlands and other rivers.
The Huai River flows through densely populated
farmland between China's two major rivers —
the Yellow and the Yangtze.
With files from the Associated Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/12/floods-china.html#ixzz0rOf9xH4o
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