South China's Guangdong Province will take further measures to minimize lightning-related disasters in the remaining few months of the year.

The move follows recent efforts to test lightning-proof products.

As it is in a subtropical area, Guangdong is often visited by lightning. Only Hainan Province gets more.

Lightning frequents Guangdong about 100 days a year while Hainan gets it on 113 days.

Pan Yaoqing, director of the Guangdong Provincial Lightning Prevention and Disaster Alleviation Office, said the office will increase efforts to supervise buildings required to install lightning equipment, including residential buildings of 19 storeys or more, any building higher than 50 metres, and any building storing combustibles and explosives.

The office is also stepping up efforts to set up a system to forecast lightning, added Pan.

Citing the latest statistics, he said 462 lightning-related disasters happened in Guangdong in the first half of this year, causing 32 casualties in deaths and injuries.

Eighteen buildings and 4,273 pieces of electronic and electrical equipment were damaged.

The province will this year and next set up 25 observation stations for lightning.

They will be put into use in 2008, and warn of lightning one hour ahead of time.

Yang Shaojie, a lightning prevention expert with the Guangdong Weather Bureau, said the province should also try to spread knowledge of how to prevent damage by lightning, especially among the rural population.

"Rural residents are more reluctant to install lightning rods on their buildings and lightning disasters happen in rural areas more often," the expert noted.

"Attempts to test lightning-proof products aim to guarantee that all lightning-proof products sold in the province work well," said Pan, "That, together with the other measures to be taken, is expected to reduce lightning disasters to as few as possible in the province."

As Guangdong is one of the most developed provinces in China, disasters due to lightning are more serious there than anywhere else, he added.

Pan said the province has sampled five out of the 60-odd enterprises that supply lightning-proof products, and 250 products are being tested.

(China Daily August 17, 2006)