Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu called for better flood prevention
to minimize casualties and economic losses, as more rains pelted
China.
China's flood prevention and relief is being put to the test,
said Hui, who is also director of the State Flood Control and
Drought Relief Headquarters. He was speaking at a meeting to design
a national plan to prevent floods and disasters held here
Wednesday.
Heavy rains have caused flash floods, landslides, casualties and
injuries recently in the country.
"We should do whatever we can to provide a safe environment for
the people in mountainous regions," he said.
Hui, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese
Communist Party Central Committee, said China is a mountainous
country and serious floods can occur quite often during the rainy
season, and China urgently needs national plan to prevent
disasters.
The plan aims to set up a disaster prevention system in five
years. The system will combine basic non-engineering projects
including surveillance, communication, early warning as well as
engineering projects.
Thirty-one people are still missing Wednesday after flash floods
hit an ethnic minority prefecture in southwest China's Guizhou Province that claimed 19 lives on
Tuesday.
Sudden downpours hit the province Monday and continued for four
hours causing several flash floods in the mountainous region.
Southern China has been hit by frequent rainstorms and floods so
far this month. Guangdong Province reports that landslides caused
by rainstorms have killed six people by Tuesday, while the Wuzhou
City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region reported 14
deaths.
Vice-Premier Hui stressed that China should integrate its
irrigation, meteorological and land resources and strengthen
communication and resource sharing in developing the plan.
The current priority is to evacuate victims in flood-hit areas
to reduce casualties and set up precipitation monitoring and early
warning systems in these areas.
Disaster prevention is a long-term and arduous task that needs
coordinated work of local governments and related national
departments, Hui said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)