Shop owner Zhoulongping piles up boxes of milk,coke and other goods,soaked and contamintaed in the flood, for sale on Monday in Yujiang country of Jiangxi province.[China Daily]

The Jiangxi provincial flood control headquarters raised its emergency alert level to Level 2 on Sunday evening.

Emergency materials, including 130 high-speed inflatable boats, 290 rubber boats, 481 fuel barrels and 5,000 life vests, were sent to the province since Saturday, the headquarters said.

The nationwide death toll from the recent torrential downpours rose to 175, with 107 others still missing as of Monday morning, authorities said.

Floods and landslides triggered by the summer deluge have forced more the 1.7 million people to be evacuated and affected more than 25 million people in 10 badly hit southern provinces and regions, according to the latest statistics from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

A total of 144,000 houses and 1.4 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed, causing direct economic losses of nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion).

Within 24 hours since 8 am on Sunday, rainstorms hit eastern parts of Jiangxi, central Zhejiang, southern Guangxi, northwest Fujiang and southern Hunan, raising the water levels of 35 major rivers across the country above the warning mark, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.

The Office on Sunday decreased the water volume discharged from the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River in order to alleviate the pressure in low-lying areas like Jiangxi and Hunan.

More heavy rains are predicted in the southern areas this week after the new round of summer deluge started hitting most parts of South China since June 13, the China Meteorological Administration said on its official website on Sunday.