Heavy rains are likely to pound flood-hit Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region while provinces in the south and east will be affected by sweltering heat in the coming days, the national weather office said yesterday.

"Following the rains, scorching heat may grip many areas in south China," said Yang Guiming, an official from the National Meteorological Centre.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the death toll from this year's floods has risen to 607, with 164 unaccounted for, 2.86 million evacuated and economic losses of 27.2 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion).

While the Ministry of Health has not received any reports of contagious diseases in the wake of the floods, authorities are on alert in case of outbreaks.

In Guangxi, the provincial flood control office warned late last week that torrential rain is expected to last until today.

In Guilin, the most popular tourist destination in Guangxi, the municipal flood control office is braced for any emergency triggered by bad weather.

In the southern province of Guangdong, the government sounded the all-clear on floods after water levels in the Pearl River and its major tributaries receded to normal levels yesterday morning.

Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Health has sent 579 teams, made up of about 6,000 experts, doctors and officials, to cities hardest hit by the floods: Zhaoqing, Heyuan, Yunfu, Shaoguan and Huizhou.

"Although no epidemic outbreaks have been reported in flood-hit areas, we will not relax our vigilance," an official told China Daily.

As water levels fell, the mercury climbed to as high as 34.2 degrees Celsius in the provincial capital Guangzhou yesterday, about 6 degrees higher than on Sunday.

"The hot weather creates ideal conditions for the spread of many infectious diseases," said the anonymous official.

Guangdong Provincial Observatory warned that the province has entered its hot summer season, and that temperatures are expected to rise to over 36 degrees Celsius in one or two days.

Meanwhile, east China's Jiangsu Province is suffering from a drought that is drying up reservoirs.

Rainfall this summer has been one tenth the yearly average, and many local governments have resorted to firing cloud-seeding rockets to induce rain.

The highest temperature recorded in Nanjing yesterday was 33 degrees Celsius, a few degrees lower than over the previous two days.

(China Daily June 28, 2005)