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Mountain disaster prevention is getting more attention from China's disaster reduction departments as landslides and mud-rock flows cause more deaths than floods.

Statistics from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters show mountain disasters cause twice as many casualties as floods and now account for about 60 percent of the casualties caused by all natural disasters.

"The serious flooding of China's several trunk rivers in the 1990s blinded people to the importance of mountain disasters," Cheng Tao, an official with the office, said in Beijing Wednesday.

"Thanks to intensive embankment construction after the 1998 severe floods, all major rivers in China remained under control this year and no large-scale flooding occurred. Instead, mountain disasters triggered by heavy rainfall were widespread," he said at a seminar marking the 2002 International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Since June, many regions including Foping County in Shaanxi Province, Chenzhou City in Hunan Province and Zhaotong City in Yunnan Province have been struck by mountain disasters like landslides, mud-rock flows and earthquakes.

As the formation of these disasters is rather complicated and often related to local geotectonic feature, and very prone to outside factors such as weather and rainfall, it is hard for experts to forecast their occurrence or for a country to initiate a large-scale prevention scheme.

Available information shows that the most vulnerable areas in China include the southwestern hilly areas, the Qinling and Bashan mountainous area in northwest Shaanxi, the less-developed mountainous lands inhabited by ethnic minorities and some former revolutionary bases.

Given some 56 percent of Chinese, about 728 million, are living in hilly areas and most of　these people have to battle both poverty and disasters, mountain disaster prevention has a direct bearing on local people's existence and should not be delayed, according to Jiang Li, vice-minister of civil affairs.

To date, the prevention of these disasters is still in early stages and various efforts have been tried by some local governments.

In Tonggu County in east China's Jiangxi Province where some 87 percent of areas are hilly, farmers are encouraged to move to safe areas and rebuild their homes and lives.

In Beijing, remote-sensing technology has been used to spot hidden dangers on the mountains within its boundary, while in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Guangyuan city government uses poverty-relief fund to improve the local environment because natural disasters have long been the biggest barrier to prosperity.

Nationwide, natural forest protection programs and green-for-grain projects aiming to strengthen soil and water conservation are being implemented.

A survey aiming to find hidden mountain dangers in 432 counties and cities has been completed under the auspices of the Ministry of Land and Resources.

While analyzing the causes of mountain disasters, Ma Zongjin, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that man-made factors are causing more mountain disasters.

For example, he said, most farmers prefer to build their homes beside rivers or close to a mountain, which was thought by ancient Chinese to symbolize harmony between Man and nature and bring about good luck.

To acquire such luck, some people even blast off part of a steep incline and build their houses right beside the damaged area.

To solve the problem, delegates from 30 relevant departments attending the seminar shared the view that scientific development of resources in mountainous areas must be spread and disaster prevention awareness must be raised as soon as possible.

With 69 percent of its land consisting of hilly areas, much higher than the world average of 55 percent, China is one of the most mountainous countries in the world.

To raise the global awareness of disasters in mountainous regions, the United Nations highlighted this year's International Day for Disaster Reduction with the theme of mountain disaster prevention and sustained development in hilly lands.

The first International Day for Disaster Reduction was marked in 1990. As stipulated by the 44th session of the UN General Assembly, the day usually falls on the second Wednesday in October.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2002)