Earthquakes have killed more people on the Chinese mainland than
any other form of natural disaster, according to a Chinese
seismological official.
Quake fatalities had accounted for 54 percent of natural
disaster deaths since 1949, said Huang Jianfa, director of the
earthquake emergency relief division of the China Seismological
Bureau, on Saturday.
Floods and droughts came the next, accounting for another 40
percent of deaths, Huang told the Asian-Pacific Regional Earthquake
Exercise workshop in Shijiazhuang, capital of? north China's
Hebei Province.
China had been afflicted by natural disasters, which affected
200 million people and damaged 40 million hectares of crops each
year.
Natural disasters cost the country an average 100 billion yuan
(US$12.5 billion) each year.
China also suffered serious losses from typhoons, landslides and
rock-and-mud flows, said Huang.
"Extreme weather will become more frequent across China because
of various factors, including global warming," said Huang, who
insisted China must participate in more international disaster
relief operations.
Thirty years ago, the industrial city of Tangshan, 200
kilometers east of Beijing in Hebei Province, was struck by one of
the deadliest earthquakes of the 20th century. Measuring 7.8 on the
Richter scale, it killed 242,000 people and injured 164,000
others.
The Asian-Pacific Regional Earthquake Exercise, which began on
Saturday, was attended by 34 rescue teams from around the world,
including the United States, Japan and Russia.
The workshop under the auspices of the United Nations Office for
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will close on Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2006)