China has set up a special joint-ministry taskforce to combat natural disasters.
The central force is being led by the Civil Affairs Ministry and consists of senior officials from a dozen ministries and departments. It has been set up to speedily mobilise the necessary manpower and resources for rescue work in the event of large-scale natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, flooding and landslides.
The news came after provincial governments criticised the party leadership and central Government for being slow in responding to disasters. Provincial government officials in Hunan - badly affected by flooding in 1998 which killed as many as 4,150 people along the Yangtze and in the northeast - complained that it had to rely very much on its own resources to combat the disaster.
'The cross-departmental taskforce would provide nationwide co-ordination, mobilise rescue teams and shipment of supplies to the worst-hit areas, resettle people and control disease in order to minimise casualties and economic losses,' said an official at the Civil Affairs Ministry.
The China News Service quoted senior officials as saying that since March the military had incorporated rescue drills into its routine training to combat natural disasters. Soldiers also have to pass an exam in rescue techniques.
Provincial governments have been ordered to set up a similar taskforce and work out contingency rescue plans at the local level before the end of this year. By next year it is expected that the central and local taskforces will be combined into a national natural disaster team.