Authorities in cities across northern, northwestern and northeastern China plus Shandong and Henan provinces are struggling to secure enough fuel to provide sufficient winter heating for residents as temperatures continue to plummet.

Although most Beijingers will start to enjoy heating systems being turned on from today, the situation is not quite so comfortable in many other cities, which are less prepared for the situation.

Inadequate storage of coal for heating has become a common phenomenon across the above areas of China, threatening heating supplies to 200 million urban residents in 14 provinces and regions, whose main source of heating is coal.

In Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, storage accounts for only 65 percent of total winter consumption needs, lower than the 70 percent threshold set by city authorities, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

And in Jilin Province, the figure is just 40 percent, while in previous years 80 percent of the total coal consumption had been ready at the same time of the year. In Beijing, storage of coal is less than 50 percent of entire winter consumption needs.

As the world's leading coal producer, China's output was 1.285 billion tons in the first 10 months of this year, a year-on-year growth of 16 percent, but this still falls short of the demands of a booming economy.

Jia Yinsong, an economist at the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Saturday that China is still in urgent need of energy and transport, despite both having grown rapidly.

The huge demand for more fuel has put immense pressure on production, which is already crippled by insufficient safety standards; last year China produced 35 percent of the world's coal, but reported 80 percent of deaths in coalmine accidents, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. The death rate for every 100 tons of coal produced was 100 times that in the United States and 30 times South Africa's.

This means that coal mining has become the most dangerous job in China. In the past month alone, there has been a series of accidents resulting in over 200 deaths.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2004)