BEIJING — China's Ministry of Water Resources on Feb 29 warned about extreme weather events in the upcoming flood season and urged local authorities to make preparations for possible disasters.

With frequent extreme weather forecast for the flood season, the country may suffer from regional floods and drought that are expected to be worse than regular years, the ministry said in a statement on its website, considering the flood-control and drought-relief situation as grim.

The ministry urged local departments to adopt region-specific measures based on local situation, intensify inspection and monitoring, strengthen real-time forecasting and beef up repair of damaged flood control facilities.

Efforts should also be taken to optimize contingency plans with related organizations and conduct emergency drills, it said.