Minister: Take steps to prevent disasters
By Tang Min (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-28 22:13

Roughly coinciding with the rainy season, most geological disasters this year are likely to hit China between May and September.

Local governments should use the time before the rainy season to complete prevention and treatment programmes and carry out another round of examination in disaster-prone areas, Vice Minister of Land and Resources Shou Jiahua said Wednesday.

The ministry's announcement was based on the weather forecasts and the long-term monitoring.The May to September period roughly matches the rainy season in most areas.

That's not unusual, considering most geological disasters -- mostly landslides -- are often triggered by concentrated heavy rainfalls.

Rain during this time makes up about 80 per cent of the year's total.

The regions most prone to such disasters are the mountainous areas of Southwest China, East China's Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, Central China's Hubei and Hunan provinces, South China's Guangdong Province, and Northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, said the ministry.

In recent years, geological disasters have led to huge human and economic losses.

However, the situation has been improving.

Shou said the number of deaths last year was less than 900, compared to more 1,000 on average each year in 1990s.

In an earlier occasion, the ministry said geological disasters caused direct economic loss of US$4.9 billion in China last year.

Since the dangerous period is also the best time for most construction work, especially in view of the country's current large-scale infrastructure development, Shou urged constructors to take care.

"Human activities have placed a premium on over 50 per cent of our geological disasters in the past several years," she said.

There were a number of tragedies in construction sites in 2003.

A landslide in the aftermath of a heavy rain last May 11 in Sanhui, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, alone claimed the lives of as many as 35 road construction workers.

At the same time, an increasing negative impact from human activities, in addition to the fact that China is likely to see more earthquakes in the early part of this century, has left the country no other way to deal with the problem except for more proactive governmental measures, said Shou.

Thanks to the country's warning mechanisms, 29,514 lives were saved last year, while more than 400 million yuan (US$48.3 million) in direct economic losses were avoided.

To help cope with the challenge, the central government adopted the Regulation on Prevention and Treatment of Geological Disasters on March 1, which stipulated, for the first time, local official's obligation to effectively fight geological disasters.

Also Wednesday, Shou announced the completion of a national survey to determine which regions are more prone to disasters. She said the work will facilitate the country's campaign to reduce losses caused by geological disasters.

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