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People's role in quakes

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-29 07:36

Earthquake forecast and precaution cannot be successful without the participation of ordinary people, says an article in Beijing News. An excerpt follows:

An amendment to the earthquake precaution and disaster relief law was submitted last Monday (Dec 22) to the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, for a second examination. According to the draft amendment, the country encourages social groups and individuals to carry out earthquake monitoring and prevention.

The new clause will be of great significance to the country's mobilization of all resources to battle the deadly natural disaster.

The destructive earthquake in Sichuan province on May 12 rocked disaster regions and shocked the whole world. Almost all Chinese people chose to join the campaign for relief work, racing against time.

Neither the monitoring of a natural disaster nor its prevention is simple. Seismologists claim earthquake prediction and prevention is a difficult task worldwide, but ordinary people's participation will help reduce losses or help win longer time to save victims. This is also very important. Available documents indicate that such a method was once used in China and contributed to minimizing the losses. It is a pity that this method was later abandoned.

(China Daily 12/29/2008 page4)