China still needs 100,000 more "disaster information
consultants" to improve the nation's response to natural disasters,
according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"China currently has about 46,000 disaster information
consultants but more than 150,000 are needed to cover every village
in the country," said a ministry spokesman.
After a year in which China was battered by typhoons and plagued
by drought, the need to improve the country's response to natural
disasters has become paramount.
"The consultants will strengthen grass-roots reporting of, and
response to, natural disasters, and help build a village-level
natural disaster reporting system which can collect and analyze
information," said the spokesman.
Natural disasters affecting China in 2006 killed 3,186 people,
causing direct losses of 253 billion yuan (US$35 billion), the
highest figures in eight years.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2007)
