How to fight natural disasters

A recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) study on drought management in China says the country has a stunningly agile disaster response system but not a corresponding system of risk reduction and management. In other words, China does not prepare for climate-related disasters; it only reacts to them.

Related readings:  Warning over rising geological disasters  Natural disasters leave 7,844 killed or missing  Weather satellite offering heads-up about disasters  Risk management in spotlight after disasters

This year, the government has been tackling two prolonged dry spells and the ongoing floods that have caused havoc in central and eastern parts of the country. The second spell of drought in the Yangtze River basin was followed by devastating floods.

At the height of the Yangtze basin drought, 3.5 million people suffered water shortage and cargo shipping was suspended on a 224-kilometer stretch in the middle and lower reaches of the river. The rain that followed came as a relief to people and the parched land in the Yangtze basin, but it also caused deadly landslides in parts of Guizhou and Hunan provinces. Torrential rain and floods have affected 13 provinces, killing almost 100 people and destroying about 27,000 houses.

The economic impact is only beginning to be assessed now that the early rice planting season is likely to be affected. The drought in the northern plains in 2000 was the worst in recent history and cost 47 billion yuan ($7.26 billion) in direct economic loss. The drought in Southwest China last year cost 1.4 billion yuan. In June 2010, 27 provinces were hit by floods that caused a direct economic loss of 142.2 billion yuan.

The costs of relief efforts are less well known, but they included hardship allowances, donations by Chinese citizens, and the cost of stabilizing food production and prices.

Such natural disasters will continue to plague the country because of three human and ecological factors. First, the Yangtze River delta region is climate sensitive, for it lies between subtropical and temperate climate zones. From 1951 to 1978, the region was hit by at least one flood or drought or both every two years. Droughts usually occurred in the mountainous areas of the region and floods in the plains.

Second, according to the national climate change assessment, global warming will increase the frequency of floods and droughts in the region. One of the most striking features of climate change is its impact on the monsoon, which has changed the precipitation pattern. The rainfall pattern in South China has changed, resulting in more floods and making the northern parts more vulnerable to droughts.

Third, ecological degradation has reduced the resilience of ecosystems against the impact of climate change and increased the risk of natural disasters. According to the State Forestry Administration's first large-scale national lake and wetlands survey, more than 1,000 natural lakes and wetlands have disappeared since 1949 and 1.3 million hectares of lake area have been reclaimed for agriculture or urban development.

The growing risk of floods in the central and lower Yangtze River region is partly because floodplains have been usurped for farming, increasing silt deposits in the river.