BEIJING, Aug. 6 -- The Ministry of Water Resources has kept a Level-IV emergency flood response in place for both Shaanxi Province in northwest China and Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, the ministry said Thursday.

Five working groups dispatched by the ministry are assisting and guiding on-site flood prevention and control efforts in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China and south China's Hainan Province, among other regions.

From Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, rainfall pushed 15 rivers in Shaanxi and southwest China's Yunnan Province above warning levels.

The ministry urged local authorities to step up safety measures for reservoirs and check dams, bolster flood defenses along small and medium-sized rivers, and guard against flash floods.

China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.