Q: The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004
caused huge disaster in Southeast Asian countries. Has China
designated a special department to be responsible for disaster
mitigation and relief work? What measures does China usually adopt
to handle disasters when they occur?
A: The considerable loss of life and destruction of property the
Indian Ocean tsunami caused to countries in Southeast Asia warned
China against the improper handling of such disasters. China is
among countries severely affected by natural disasters. With the
exception of volcanic eruptions, almost all kinds of natural
disasters occur in different regions of China. Government
statistics show that direct loss resulting from disasters totals
over 100 billion yuan (US$12.1 billion) each year.
The Chinese Government attaches great importance to disaster
mitigation and relief work due to the frequency of disaster
occurrence. When a severe disaster happens, state leaders will come
to inspect the affected areas and comfort victims, in addition to
mobilizing manpower and material resources, and financial support
to help people cope. In 2004, severe floods occurred in some medium
and small rivers and Typhoon Rananim hit east China's Zhejiang
Province, causing landslides, falling rocks and flash floods in
certain townships. Apart from strengthening disaster early-warning
and forecast efforts, the Central Government earmarked 4 billion
yuan (US$483.68 million) for disaster relief in these areas,
collected donations of 4.89 million yuan (US$591,294), allocated
310,000 tents, evacuated and settled down 6.11 million victims in
disaster-stricken areas, and helped these victims to rebuild 1.4
million destroyed houses, guaranteeing the basic needs of victims
in terms of clothing, food, shelter, clean water and medical care.
To supplement the government support, people from all walks of life
are encouraged to donate and help the disaster-hit areas. Victims
were encouraged to brace themselves for the relief work,
neighboring cities were asked to help each other to pull through
disasters, and tax breaks were granted. All these measures helped
assist the basic needs of victims and guarantee social stability in
disaster-stricken areas.
China has spent a considerable amount of money building disaster
early-warning and forecast mechanisms to monitor and forecast,
respectively, earthquake and weather events. These investments
greatly enhanced the country's earthquake monitoring ability and
technology for forecasting weather conditions. As well, China has
achieved a distinct improvement in technologies for marine
environment forecasting, dynamic monitoring and early warning of
severe plant diseases and insects, as well as weather
calamities.
As for the construction of disaster prevention and relief
mechanisms, China has established an emergency relief mechanism for
severe disasters, detailed emergency response procedures for the
Central Government, and formed a nationwide contingency planning
system for emergency disaster response at provincial, prefecture
and county level governments. The nationwide network of disaster
information, reaching every county, has been launched and ensures
severe disasters are dealt with within 24 hours of occurring. Under
the leadership of all levels of government, an emergency disaster
relief mechanism that involves disaster relief departments at all
levels, the military, the police as well as the reserve forces as
its backbone has been in place. A system for disaster relief
emergency appropriation and the disaster relief material reserve
mechanism have been established by the Central Government, greatly
enhancing emergency relief ability at all levels of government.
China has also invested heavily in disaster mitigation
engineering plans and finished several large water conservancy
projects, fixed embankments over trunk rivers and dilapidated
reservoirs, and developed flood and earthquake resistant facilities
in major cities as well as comprehensive prevention and control
engineering techniques for heavy disasters.
In order to guarantee smooth disaster prevention, mitigation and
relief, China has enacted and put into force some 30 relevant laws
and regulations. The implementation of the Law on Water and Soil
Conservation, the Law on Precautions Against Earthquakes and Relief
of Disaster, the Fire Control Law, the Flood Control Law, the
Meteorology Law, the Work Safety Law as well as the Regulations on
Forest Fire Prevention, the Regulations on Forest Disease and
Insect Pest Prevention and Control, and the Regulations on the
Control over Safety of Dangerous Chemicals, in particular, enables
the above-mentioned fields of work and forms the working pattern of
mitigating and relieving disasters in accordance with the law.
A rescue jeep is trapped on its way to
Yumin County of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to deliver relief
materials to snow-hit residents in.
