This year, earthquakes, floods, drought, hailstone, snowfall, sleet, extremely cold weather and other natural disasters have caused severe personal casualty and property loss in China.

Up to May 19, an area of 12.7 million hectares of farmland had been affected, of which, 4.3 million hectares have suffered no less than 30 percent reduction of their usual output. A population of 65 million has been affected, of which 31 million have directly experienced damage to themselves or property, with a death toll of 443. Natural disaster has claimed a direct economic loss of 13.04 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion).

This year, there were 13 earthquakes, with a rating of over 5 on the Richter scale, on the mainland. The earthquakes which happened in Bachu and Jiashi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on February 24, claimed 269 lives, the largest number of deaths by an earthquake in recent years, causing a direct economic loss of 1.73 billion yuan (US$20.8 million) by May 19, an official from the disaster relief department of China Civil Affairs Ministry said.

In May, strong rainfall appeared frequently in some parts of China. From May 11-17, strong rains in south China caused serious flooding in some regions of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou. Some parts of mountain areas were affected by landslides and mud-rock flow, resulting in severe personal casualties. Until May 19, floods affected crops in 507,000 hectares of farmland, of which 296,000 hectares were damaged, resulting in 134 deaths with a direct economic loss of 3.7 billion yuan (US$446 million).

Apart from floods, precipitation in most parts of northeast China, eastern parts of north China, middle and eastern parts of northwest China, eastern parts of southwest China and southern parts of south China were 20 to 80 percent less than the average of the same period last year, some parts even having no rain. Also, the temperature in most parts was higher than the previous yearly average, resulting in quick water evaporation and severe droughts in some areas. By May 19, the crops on over 9 million hectares of farmland were affected. There were 4.3 million people and 3.1 million livestock affected by the resulting lack of drinking water.

Since the latter part of March, strong convective weather frequently occurred in some parts of China, resulting in hailstones and strong winds appearing successively in 14 provinces. In January, south China experienced a deluge of rainfall and snow. Northern parts of Yunnan, southern parts of Sichuan, middle and southern parts of Guizhou, northern parts of Guangxi, southern parts of Hunan, southern parts of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and northern parts of Fujian received moderate to strong snowfall, with snowstorms in some parts, and some regions experiencing sleet. From February to March, Ngari in Tibet and Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia had large scale snow with some regions seriously damaged by it.

An official said the Ministry of Civil Affairs sent workgroups to the disaster areas soon after the disaster occurred and investigated the situation and provided disaster relief. A total of 119 million yuan (US$14.4 million) had been appropriated to the disaster area with 21,000 tents provided by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, jointly with the Ministry of Finance.

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, June 3, 2003)