Natural disasters have claimed the lives of 1,911 people across the country so far this year, said Vice-Minister of Civil Affairs Yang Yanyin Sunday.

Yang told a Beijing conference on rehabilitation work in disaster-hit provinces that disasters, including floods, droughts, earthquakes, hail storms, wind storms, landslides and mudflows, also damaged 50.7 million hectares of crops and caused direct losses of 151.42 billion yuan (US$18.24 billion).

A total of 6.31 million people were evacuated to safer places in these areas, where 2.62 million houses were destroyed and 6.8 million houses were damaged.

Floods were the most disastrous natural calamity, Yang said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs had sent over 40 official teams to help with local relief efforts. More than 2.7 billion yuan (US$325million) in relief funds had been distributed by the central government to these areas, he said.

The ministry had sent 99,460 tents to 16 affected provinces, he said.

He ordered local authorities to distribute all the funds to the needy, before Oct. 10 and warned that nobody was allowed to keep the money for their own use under any pretext.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2003)