China's Ministry of Water Resources said that two dams in the Inner Mongolian city of Hulunbuir, collapsed on July 18 afternoon in China's Inner Mongolia  Autonomous Region after torrential rain. They had formed reservoirs with a combined water storage capacity of 46 million cubic metres. The ministry said that on average, 87 millimetres of rain fell in Hulunbuir over the weekend and as much as 223 millimetres at the Morin Dawa monitoring station. Hulunbuir's city government said on its WeChat account that 16,660 people have been affected, with 326,622 mu (53,807 acres) of farmland submerged. Bridges and other transport infrastructure had also been destroyed.

(Comment: China has more than 98,000 reservoirs used to regulate floods, generate power and facilitate shipping. More than 80% of them are four decades old or older, and some pose a safety risk. Wei Shanzhong, Deputy Water Resources Minister, a lack of financial resources means that nearly a third of the total number have not had mandatory safety appraisals completed.)