CHINA> News
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CHINA> News
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China launches campaign against natural disasters
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-10 10:11 "Some devastation is avoidable. An effective public monitoring and early warning system to alert people to risks from droughts, floods, and earthquakes could save many lives," Wang said. The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) would train 1 million meteorologists in rural areas within five years to ensure every village has the information needed to combat increasingly devastating weather events, said Xu Xiaofeng, CMA vice director.
Departments of civil affairs, forestry, land and resources are also building public information networks. The Ministry of Land and Resources has set up public monitoring systems in more than 120,000 places with potential geological hazards. But experts said a lack of coordination among departments sometimes diminished efficiency. "We hope the central government can build an integrated information network so that every staff member can help monitor disasters," said Ma Zongjin, an academician of China Academy of Sciences. "The government needs to invest more to ensure the income of these staff in rural areas." China's top-down mobilization system coordinates resources to increase efficiencies in rescue and reconstruction. The model could also be adopted in coordinating the public and ministries in monitoring and early warning, Ma said. China is among countries most plagued by natural disasters, with 70 percent of its cities and 50 percent of its 1.3 billion people living in areas vulnerable to one or more kinds of natural disasters. China has suffered major natural calamities, including torrential floods in the Yangtze River valley in 1998, severe droughts in Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality in 2006, winter storms in southern China early last year, and the massive may 12 earthquake. The United Nations said natural disasters caused nearly 110 billion US dollars of damage in China last year.
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