Disaster relief officials punished for moldy bread incident

A senior civil affairs official said on Friday that the government will work harder to improve storage facilities for relief materials, as local officials in Hainan province were harshly criticized for distributing moldy bread to typhoon-stricken villagers.

Zhang Weixing, spokesman for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said the Hainan provincial government has conducted a thorough investigation of the case involving 200 villagers from Wenchang city, which was crippled by Typhoon Rammasun last week.

He added that the officials responsible for the food distribution were punished after netizens exposed the case online.

Ensuring the safety of food and drinking water is the "bottom line" for the government's disaster relief work, he stressed.

He admitted that the emergency supplies network had failed in its mission to aid disaster-affected populations.

Ministry data showed that Typhoon Rammasun, the strongest storm to hit southern China in four decades, claimed 62 lives and left 21 people missing.

More than 11 million people in four provinces, including Hainan and Guangdong, were affected by the havoc. The economic loss is estimated at 38.5 billion yuan ($6.2 billion).

The central government will learn from the scandal and strive to solve the problem through stricter regulations, Zhang told reporters at a Beijing news conference held on Friday.