Legislation should be introduced to help reduce the damage caused by natural disasters such as landslides, mudslides and floods, experts said at a national conference at the weekend.

"There are still many gaps in building laws and regulations to help guard against disasters and better protect the environment," said Yun Xiaosu, vice-minister of the Ministry of Land and Resources, at the national conference on geological resources management and environmental protection in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

The ministry enacted two regulations on risk evaluation in construction projects earlier this month, establishing guidelines on preventing disasters triggered by construction projects.

So far, 12 of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland have issued their own regulations.

"Those local regulations need more specific rules to better protect the geological environment, such as rules on the supervision and management of mining areas, on monitoring and on underground water and spring protection," Yun said.

Last year, 688 people were killed and 172 went missing in 875 medium and large geological disasters, including 572 landslides, 181 collapses, 77 mud flows and 25 surface subsidences, leading to 2 billion yuan (US$243 million) in economic losses, statistics from the ministry show. Some of the disasters were natural, while others were triggered by humans.

Some construction projects, especially those not evaluated for potential risks, can cause ground subsidence and crevices to open, said Wang Zhirong, an expert on disaster control with the Gansu Provincial Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Some cities and counties are constantly in danger of geological disasters because they were built in disaster-prone areas without the necessary geological survey that can help ensure safety," Wang said. "Wrong activities, such as improper irrigation and excavation, have increased the risks."

A geological monitoring and early-warning system will help reduce the risk of these disasters, experts at the conference said.

For example, the tremor monitoring and early-warning network for the Three Gorges Reservoir area in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has detected medium and strong geological movement and provided the local government with complete, first-hand information.

Disasters were common before the construction of the Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River, the world's largest hydroelectric project, sparking fears about possible calamities after the reservoir began to fill.

Construction on the project began in 1993 and is expected to be complete in 2009. The huge reservoir started to fill in June 2003.

The warning system predicted a big landslide in the Wanzhou District of Chongqing last September. More than 1,250 people were relocated, and no one was injured.

By the end of last year, 545 counties and cities across the country had finished geological disaster surveys, covering 17 per cent of the country's land and almost all the disaster-prone areas, statistics showed.

And six national emergency relief groups specifically for geological disasters have been established.

(China Daily May 24, 2005)