In 2006 natural disasters took the most lives since 1998, a senior official said yesterday, as the government gets set to spend additional money on setting up an advanced emergency response system.

Ministry of Civil Affairs figures show natural disasters like typhoons, floods, landslides, mud-flows, hailstorms and earthquakes claimed 3,155 lives in 2006. This is a quarter more than the previous year.

Natural disasters killed 5,511 people in 1998 most of them because of heavy flooding in the Yangtze River area.

"A majority of victims last year lost their lives in major disasters," an official with the ministry's Department of Disaster Relief, Li Baojun said. "About half of the deaths were caused by typhoons."

Each of last year's five major disasters claimed more than 50 lives and killed a total of 1,716 people or more than half of the overall fatality figure. Two major typhoons, Bilis and Saomai, killed 848 and 483 people respectively accounting for four in 10 deaths overall.

Building collapses, landslides, mud and rock-flows and lightning strikes were the other major causes of fatalities.

Hunan, Fujian and Yunnan provinces bore the brunt of the natural disasters losing 588, 503 and 409 people respectively. 

"Handling some disasters such as typhoons were beyond our capacity," Li said. "For example Typhoon Saomai was the worst in 50 years." Li said the central government would allocate increased funds to establish a more efficient system to handle disasters.

China has 10 national-level bases for disaster-relief materials, most of which are located in the eastern part of the country, Li said and added, "We'll build more bases in the western parts of the country."

People's Daily Online quoted department director, Wang Zhenyao, as saying that though China had made progress in handling natural disasters it still had to prepare better for extreme weather.

For example the authorities were caught off-guard when Typhoon Saomai slammed directly into Shacheng Harbor in east China's Fujian Province. The typhoon generated winds gusting at high speeds and unusually high waves which overturned many vessels. 

Wang said a big problem for the authorities was convincing people to evacuate when disasters were imminent.

A lot of lives could have been saved if people had left their homes and belongings and moved to safer places in Fujian but they didn't believe the typhoon would be as strong as the authorities warned.

Therefore one of the government's tasks would be to raise the awareness of people especially those living in disaster-prone areas.

(China Daily January 5, 2007)