About 6.42 million people live in areas that could be hit by flash floods in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities have said.

An 29,500 square km area in Guizhou is vulnerable to flash floods, according to the Provincial Department of Water Resources.

Flash floods pose a threat to 4.67 million mu (313,333 hectares) of farmland and 479 major industrial plants and companies, statistics show.

Some 5,042-km of highway, 21 railway lines, 357 bridges and 511 power transmission lines are vulnerable to flash floods.

Each year, flash floods kill numerous people and cause huge economic losses in this mountainous province.

Over the next four years the local government plans to spend 375.3 million yuan (US$46.9 million) to help prevent flash floods.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2007)