The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued an emergency notice Friday to
tighten the management of relief work in flood-stricken areas.
Relief funds totaling 110.9 million yuan (US$13.36 million)
allocated by the central government must be distributed to flood
victims within 15 days, and relief materials including food, water,
blankets and medical assistance must be available to victims 24
hours after their evacuation, says the notice.
To
secure the timely supply of relief materials, all eight
state-designated storehouses in Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan,
Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Changsha, Xi'an and Chengdu are required to
operate 24 hours a day.
The ministry also required local governments to ensure the accuracy
of their disaster situation reports. In the worst-hit Jiangsu,
Anhui, Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces, the deadline for daily
disaster reports has been set at midday.
Departments and officials responsible for false reports, including
those that exaggerate or conceal information, will be punished
according to relevant regulations and their malpractice will be
publicized and corrected immediately.
The notice also requires civil affairs departments to take
initiatives in coordinating finance, auditing and supervision
departments to supervise the utilization of relief funds and
materials.
Earlier Friday, a report released by the ministry said some 569
people had been killed so far in floods, which had caused direct
economic losses of 39.87 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion).
As
of July 10, flooding had affected 9.559 million hectares of
farmland, and 1.458 million hectares had suffered total crop
failure.
The normal lives and production of nearly 140 million people had
been affected, with 51,000 people reported ill or injured and 2.292
million people evacuated.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)
