China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Saturday informed that the natural disasters left over 7,000 people dead or missing in China in 2010.
According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, China's natural disasters affected approximately 430 million people. The MCA report was made jointly with the National Bureau of Statistics, the China Earthquake Administration and the Red Cross Society of China.
Natural disasters caused direct economic losses of 534 billion yuan ($81 billion) and left 7,844 people dead or missing. The economic losses were 1.2 times higher than the average of the previous 20 years.
The severity of the 2010 disasters was second only to the ones registered in 2008. That year, severe snowstorms and a 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Asian country. In 2010, earthquakes and mudslides affected both provinces and cities in China.
Last April, the Qinghai Province was truck by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake and a mudslide in Gansu Province in August left around 5,000 people dead or missing. Over 2.7 million houses collapsed in 2010.
In addition, nearly 40 million hectares of crops were affected as well, with 4 million hectares yielding no harvest at all. Freezing rain and snowstorms caused traffic interruptions and accidents in northern cities.
In November, the United Nations released a report indicating that countries in Asia and the Pacific are more prone to natural disasters than those in other parts of the world. The report added that the Asia-Pacific region is four times more likely to be affected by a natural catastrophe than Africa and 25 times more vulnerable than Europe or North America.
According to the study, future disaster risk reduction strategies in the region should be considered within broader development frameworks and multisectoral budgetary processes that address economic inequities and social and environmental imbalances.
The report was unveiled at the 4th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in South Korea.
Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved.
