China pays a high price for disasters
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-07-17 10:13
More than 200,000 Chinese die and up to 2 million are injured on average
every year in natural disasters, industrial accidents, public health emergencies
and criminal activities.
The annual losses from these incidents top 600 billion yuan (US$75 billion),
Shan Shunchang, deputy director of the State Council emergency management team,
told an international forum in Tangshan.
Natural disasters affected 150 million to 350 million people every year,
resulting in 10,000 deaths and causing 200 billion yuan damage.
In the 20th century, about a third of the world's destructive earthquakes
were in China, killing 590,000 people, half of the world's total.
Tangshan City, in north China's Hebei Province, had one of the most
disastrous earthquakes 30 years ago with casualties totaling 950,000, including
243,000 dead.
Shan was speaking at the International Aid and Medical Science Forum, part of
activities to commemorate the disaster.
Almost 1 million accidents were recorded in China every year, involving more
than 130,000 deaths and 700,000 serious injuries on average, and resulting in
losses of 250 billion yuan, officials said.
Shan said more than half the world's 30 new infectious diseases had been
detected in China.
The country also recorded more than 200 serious food poisoning cases every
year involving 200 deaths.
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