China speeds building of emergency alert system

BEIJING - The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said on Friday that it has accelerated the building of its emergency alert publishing system.

Sun Jian, director of CMA's Public Weather Service Center and also head of CMA's emergency alert publishing system, told Xinhua that the country aims to build a multi-tier platform, including one state-level, 31 provincial-level and 342 municipal-level platforms. That will improve the function of the publishing system.

The aim of the project is to ensure residents receive a warning within 10 minutes after messages are released via the Internet, text messages, telephone, fax, radio, electronic screen, loudspeaker in rural areas, marine radio and other channels, Sun said.

He expects the system to cover 90 percent of the country's population by the end of 2015.

China started to build its emergency alert publishing system in November last year to ensure residents get timely warnings about natural disasters, accidents, public health events and social security issues.

It is a key part of the country's emergency response system and was initially set up in 11 provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Hebei, Anhui, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Investment in the system has hit 136 million yuan ($21.59 million), earlier reports said.