Victims of China's increasingly frequent natural disasters will
be guaranteed medical aid and relief supplies within 24 hours under
a new government plan released on Tuesday.
The 11th Five-year Plan (2006-2010) for disaster relief outlines
a wide range of measures to improve the natural disaster response
system to cope with the "more frequent" calamities caused by global
warming.
"We must guarantee that all people who are affected by disasters
have access to enough food, drinking water, clothes, shelter and
medical aid within 24 hours," it proclaims.
"A variety of natural disasters have affected 300 million
people, destroyed three million homes, and cost 20 million yuan in
direct economic losses every year to China over the past 15
years."
"As global warming increases, the frequency and intensity of
natural disasters will also increase," said a senior official with
the National Disaster Reduction Commission.
"Natural disasters have significantly restrained China's
economic and social development," he said.
Under the plan, the government will establish a coordination
platform to share information on natural disasters. National
surveillance, early-warning, emergency response systems will be
established and improved.
The plan also sets a target for economic loss control: "Direct
economic losses caused by natural disasters should be contained at
less than 1.5 percent of the country's annual GDP."
The document said that global warming is provoking more frequent
typhoons, floods, rock-mud flows, droughts, and heat waves.
Desertification, forest fires, plant diseases and algae blooms
would be more common in the future.
More than 70 of China's cities and more than half the population
are located in areas susceptible to natural disasters.
The government will establish central and local disaster relief
material reserves networks and improve the standards for disaster
relief facilities. They will offer additional training to the
disaster relief personnel from the armed forces, fire brigades and
civil affair departments.
Non-governmental disaster relief forces, such as the Red Cross
Society, would be fully mobilized for natural disaster prevention,
donations, medical aid, epidemic quarantine and psychiatric
counseling.
Campaigns would also be run to raise public awareness of natural
disaster prevention and safety via TV and radio programs,
advertising, free booklets and audio-video products.
The official from the National Disaster Reduction Commission
said that the government aimed to set up an Asian regional research
center to simulate disasters and responses, and consequently
formulate strategies and policies.
It would also establish specific disaster prevention and
response plans for the nation's more populous and prosperous
regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and
the Bohai Sea, the official said.
Approximately 1,279 Chinese have died and 239 have disappeared
due to natural disasters during the first seven months of 2007.
More than 1,600 Chinese have died as a result of natural disasters
in 2006.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2007)