China plans to enhance weather modification

BEIJING - China said Thursday it will take more active steps to enhance weather modification, in a bid to better serve agricultural production and disaster relief work.

The country aims to build a relatively complete weather modification system by 2020 and make significant improvements in providing basic guarantees and security management, according to a plan published on the Chinese government's website, www.gov.cn.

By 2020, China plans to increase precipitation by 60 billion tonnes annually via cloud seeding, as well as extend the coverage of artificial hail suppression to more than 540,000 square kilometers from the current 470,000 square kilometers, it said.

The government also requires local authorities to ensure weather modification services on agricultural production, exploitation of cloud-water resources, emergency response and the safeguarding of major events.

China has resorted to weather modification to prevent the usually unpredictable weather from disrupting major events, such as the 2008 Summer Olympics.