A deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has proposed to designate May 12, the day when the magnitude-8.0 quake devastated the country's southwest earlier this year, as "National Disaster Prevention Day."

The proposed day could help promote awareness about disaster prevention and relief, the People's Daily quoted Zhao Peng, a deputy to the 10th and 11th NPC, as saying.

"We find that many people did not know how to react to the earthquake and perform proper first aid in the wake of May 12 earthquake," he told the Beijing-based newspaper.

The proposition, should it be passed, would arouse the public's response awareness to disaster and possibly help to save their lives, he added.

Zhao urged the public to take advantage of this memorial day to publicize the knowledge of emergency rescue through various media channels, including the Internet, TV and radio.

The day should serve to complement the earthquake and disaster-relief work in future, the paper reported on Wednesday.

China boasts a vast territory but it is also subject to various natural calamities. About 70 percent of its cities and about half of its population are scattered in areas vulnerable to natural disaster.

The earthquake that jolted southwestern China in May had claimed 69,197 lives as of Wednesday.

Earlier, the national government had set a three day national mourning period from May 19 to 21 to remember the quake dead.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)