Chapter 3
Actions and Achievements in the Major Fields of Sustainable Development
Section 11 Disaster Mitigation and Prevention
I. BackgroundII. Actions and Achievements3.68 China is one of the countries that suffer most from serious natural disasters in terms of disaster variety, frequency, intensity, duration, influence, and destructive effect. Since the early 1990s, the average yearly direct economic loss has been RMB 100 billion yuan from seven major types of disasters (extreme meteorological phenomena, oceanic phenomena, floods, earthquakes, geologic disasters, agricultural pests, and forest fires). The total loss is about 3-6% of the GNP. In addition, the frequency of disasters, scope of their influence, and the extent of destruction are increasing due to economic development, population growth, and environmental deterioration. In some areas, disasters have become the most significant factor hindering the work of poverty alleviation.
3.69 Establishment and improvement of disaster management systems
The Chinese Government attaches great importance to disaster mitigation and prevention. As early as April of 1984, the China Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) was jointly established by 28 ministries. This organisation is responsible for the country's disaster mitigation and prevention activity, scientific research, technical training, disaster assessment, and public education. It drafted the "Outline of China's International Disaster Reduction Action" and made the policy of prioritising prevention and combining prevention and relief together. A comprehensive natural disaster prevention system has been set up. Local governments have also established their respective coordinating departments for disaster mitigation and prevention. In the last four years, the Chinese Government has strengthened its legislation for disaster mitigation and prevention, and formulated many administrative regulations such as the "Regulations on Protecting Seismographic Facilities and the Environment for Seismic Observation (1994)", the "Meteorological Regulations of the People's Republic of China (1995)", and the "Contingency Regulations Concerning Destructive Earthquakes (1995)".
3.70 Construction of disaster mitigation and prevention works
Flood and drought control works
By 1996, the country had built 246,700 km of dikes and dams, and 84,800 large- and medium-sized reservoirs. The large flood control works have been completed and put into use as the flood prevention systems on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Control works have also been created on the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Pearl River, Songhuajiang River, etc. These works have played an important role in disaster mitigation and prevention. The estimated loss reduction is more than RMB 300 billion yuan, and these works have also produced remarkable social benefits.
Earthquake prevention and anti-seismic works
Anti-seismic capabilities have been enhanced in newly built projects, and reinforcement activities have been conducted on those existing works lacking anti-seismic capability. On the basis of regional comprehensive earthquake prevention, earthquake insulation, earthquake reduction, and anti-seismic construction, 230 million square metres of houses and some important projects have been reinforced. Reinforcement has also been completed on 14 main railways in the major earthquake-sensitive areas (such as the Tianjin-Pukou, Beijing-Baotou, Beijing-Guangzhou, and Lianyungang-Lanzhou lines), 90 major power plants, 6 major oil pipelines, 60 reservoirs, 20 large oil-refineries, super-large ethylene projects, more than 20 large iron and steel enterprises, and other large enterprises important to the national economy and people's livelihood.
Geological disaster control works
Prospecting has been carried out on 46 projects for the resolution of geological problems, such as mudslides (in southwestern and northwestern China and the mountainous areas north of Beijing), surface subsidence in Wuhan City of Hubei Province, landslides in Chongqing City of Sichuan Province, and fissures in Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province. Monitoring networks have been set up in the areas of frequent landslides and mudslides in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Currently, measures have been taken to control landslide in five places including the dangerous cliff sections of the Lianzi Cliff of the Three Gorges. Comprehensive measures have also been taken to control sea water intrusion in Laizhou Bay of Shandong Province.
Biological disaster control projects of agriculture and forestry
By the end of 1996, a biological control system had been set up at county and township levels, including plant protection corporations, plant (crop) hospitals, and professional plant-disease prevention-and-cure teams. More than 10% of the total controlled area has been protected from diseases, insects, weeds, and rats by professional biological control systems. In recent years, special efforts have been made for bollwarm control in cotton-producing areas, and in the control of rice pests and locusts. Now 4.2 million hectares of grassland are free of pests and rats (21% of the afflicted area).
3.71 Establishment and perfection of the disaster monitoring and warning system
After many years of construction, preliminary disaster monitoring and warning systems have been set up. They have greatly improved the disaster prevention capabilities. At present, China has established:
A meteorological monitoring and warning network (with more than 2,600 meteorological stations)
A hydrological monitoring network (with more than 8,000 stations)
An earthquake observation system, and many warning and observing systems (with more than 1,000 stations in total);
Many crop and forest pests disaster monitoring and forecasting systems (with more than 3,000 stations);
A grassland pests and rat disaster forecast network (with more than 240 stations);
A marine disaster monitoring and forecasting network (with more than 280 stations, including tide monitoring);
There are forest and grassland fire monitoring systems, geological disaster prospecting systems, disaster reporting systems, etc.
Telephone, wireless communication devices, TV, and a broadcasting network have been widely used in the transmission of disaster information and have greatly strengthened the capabilities of various local disaster emergency management systems.
3.72 Insurance and relief of disasters
China's insurance industry has played a positive role in regional disaster mitigation and prevention, especially in disaster prevention, loss prevention, and restoration of production after disasters. The People's Insurance Company of China began to resume its responsibility of handling insurance cases in 1980. In 1982, it began experiments in the agricultural insurance business. At present, the insurance business has grown to cover over 100 kinds of insurance, thus tremendously reducing farmers' risk. The Department of Civil Affairs has created rural disaster mitigation and prevention cooperation insurance and conducted experiments in more than 100 counties.
3.73 Research on disaster mitigation and prevention
The Chinese Government has set up more than 100 disaster research institutes in the country. Research relating to disaster mitigation and prevention has been put into long-term programmes and key scientific and technological projects at various periods. These research projects include comprehensive control technology for crop pests and forest disasters; monitoring and forecasting technology for meteorological disasters (such as typhoons and storms); key technology for earthquake and geological disaster and city disaster mitigation and prevention; global climate change prediction; disaster countermeasure research; research on the water resources of the Yellow River; research on the remote sensing of disasters; a study of the causes of China's major disasters; development of regulations, monitoring, and risk assessment; research on anti-flood remote sensing application experiments and warning systems; landslide and debris flow disaster prevention technology; research on urban anti-seismic programmes and comprehensive disaster mitigation and prevention.
3.74 Publicity and education on disaster mitigation and prevention
China's publicity of disaster mitigation and prevention
The Chinese Government is making full use of existing news media to produce popular films that are easy to understand and can spread disaster mitigation and prevention knowledge, and to publish articles for improving the public's disaster prevention skills. This also includes the publishing of special books and proceedings on disaster mitigation and prevention, and arranging academic exchanges between foreign and domestic specialists on disaster relief.
Education on disaster mitigation and prevention has been given priority in recent years
Disaster mitigation and prevention courses are available in the earth sciences, architectural engineering, water conservation engineering, and other specialities. Some universities and colleges have established faculties and offer M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in disaster mitigation and prevention studies. Disaster mitigation and prevention content has been added to the geography and nature courses of primary and middle schools. Public education disaster mitigation and prevention has been carried out, and disaster mitigation and prevention exercises have been conducted in some areas in order to enhance people's consciousness of disaster mitigation and prevention.
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