China will make further efforts in the next several years to improve its weather modification service from the current single function of disaster prevention and reduction to a multi-functional service, Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration, said in Beijing Friday.

Qin made this statement at the second China weather modification meeting from Feb. 26 to 28.

According to Qin, such a multi-functional service includes not only disaster prevention and reduction but also air and water resources exploitation and ecological environmental protection.

"As one of the countries most severely harassed by meteorological disasters, especially drought, China has seen soaring extreme weather days and water shortage since the 1990s, all of which have greatly impeded China's economic and social development," said Qin.

To lessen this problem, China established the National Coordination Committee of Weather Modification in 1994 and held the first all China weather modification meeting in 1995.

"Since then, great progress has been made in China's weather modification service. From 1995 to 2003, China has become the world's number one in its weather modification service scale," said Qin.

However, the weakness of insufficient scientific research has begun and will further impede the development of China's weather modification service, said Qin.

In the next few years, while continuing to take agriculture as the major service content, China's weather modification will make more efforts in air water resources exploitation to lessen the country's hunger for water and in improving its service in environmental protection and transportation.

According to Qin, tests of precipitation and cloud dispersal for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Expositions in Shanghai is underway.

A plan for the development of China's weather modification activities from 2004-2010 was put forward to the meeting for discussion.

Weather modification means to modify the weather under certain weather conditions to the needs of people by artificial methods, including mainly precipitation enhancement and hail suppression, as well as fog, cloud and precipitation dispersal, frost prevention and thunder producing.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2004)