China's State Council on Tuesday called for efforts to reconstruct destroyed houses to ensure that the people affected by the recent flooding can return to homes or move into new homes before winter.

Record-breaking rains brought by Typhoon Doksuri hit northern China recently, damaging crops and agricultural production facilities and leading to deadly flooding in cities.

China will accelerate the recovery and reconstruction of schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other public facilities, to ensure that every student affected by the disaster can return to school on time, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

The meeting urged to strengthen infrastructure planning and construction such as water conservancy in China's northern region, improve the ability to prevent and respond to drought and water disasters.

It called for efforts to continue to search for and rescue lost persons and minimize casualties as well as to ensure disinfection to prevent any epidemic.

The basic livelihood of the affected people should be safeguarded and ensure that they have temporary shelter, food, clothing, clean water, and timely medical treatment for their illnesses, according to the meeting.

The meeting called for accelerating the repair of roads, power supply, water supply and communication facilities, maintaining supply and stabilizing prices in the market, to restore normal production and living order in the disaster area as soon as possible.

It also urged to repair damaged fields and agricultural facilities, increase the security of agriculture supply, and organize farmers to actively replant and remedy the situation.

The meeting demanded that all relevant departments should further increase their support and quickly disburse all kinds of disaster relief funds to provide compensation and relief in advance.

Financial institutions should strengthen credit support for business entities in the disaster-stricken areas, especially small and micro enterprises, individual businesses, as well as agricultural and aquaculture enterprises and farmers, and open a green channel for insurance claims, the meeting said.

(Cover: China's armed police in Shangzhi, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, August 6, 2023. /CFP)