China's government has warned of heavy flooding after many of the country's southern and eastern provinces experienced some of the worst storms in decades.

The Yangtze, Huaihe and Xijiang rivers may see "quite large" floods this year due to unusually heavy rain, with the average national precipitation level second only to that in 1961, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Since the beginning of the wet season, 118 rivers in southern and eastern China, including Hunan, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, have surpassed their water levels. The record high levels have been reached during the same period for the past five years, the People's Daily reported on Wednesday.

Recent floods have killed at least 74 people, displaced 323,400 and caused economic damage of over 11.4 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) as of Monday.

Landslide warnings have also been issued.

Rain will continue to the south of the Yangtze, along the Huaihe and in south China over the next three days, weather forecasters said Wednesday.

Another storm front will hit Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces and regions in the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze between May 31 and June 2, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

Meteorologists say the heavy rain is the result of the El Nino phenomenon, which is expected to last until the end of May. Current conditions are similar to those that caused the Yangtze River to overflow in 1998, which killed 1,320, the Xinhua  News Agency reported on Wednesday.