The government is mulling ways to modernize the nation's natural
disaster early warning system, and Ministry of Civil Affairs
representatives met over the weekend with disaster warning and
relief experts to discuss strategies for responding to natural
disasters.
"The tsunami disaster has caused unprecedented losses and shows
what can happen when there is a lack of an efficient early warning
and reporting system," said Zou Ming, deputy director of Disaster
and Social Relief Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
An improved warning system may help to reduce the economic
impact of catastrophic events. Since the 1990s, natural disasters
have cost the country about 150 billion yuan (US$18 billion)
annually.
"Every year, the average direct and indirect economic losses
caused by such disasters account for 6 to 10 percent of the
nation's GDP," Zou said.
He indicated that China is in urgent need of fully integrating
its disaster warning and information processing system and that it
should also enhance international cooperation in this regard.
"To better share information and improve efficiency, an
integrated platform should be established to coordinate all
disaster warning and information," Zou said.
Under the existing system, different departments and
institutions, such as earthquake bureaus and water resource and
meteorological departments, monitor different types of events. Each
type of event has its own warning and information processing
system, none of which is compatible with the others.
The current system "guarantees that major disaster information"
will reach the central government within 24 hours, with the first
shipment of relief materials reaching victims within the same time
frame. Funds from the central government are to be in place within
three days. The country has 10 relief materials warehouses in
high-risk areas, and about 56 percent of county governments have
established their own such storage facilities.
Existing regulations detail responsibilities and operating
procedures for responding departments in the event of flood,
drought, typhoon, sandstorm, volcano, earthquake, landslide, storm,
tsunami or similar occurrences.
However, an integrated disaster prevention law and policy is one
of the most urgent tasks the Ministry of Civil
Affairs needs to tackle this year, along with disaster
prevention awareness education in schools and communities, said
Zou.
Later this month, China will host a workshop with ASEAN to
discuss information sharing and cooperation to establish a regional
early-warning mechanism.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, China Daily January 10,
2005)