Natural disasters killed 3,200 people in China in 1997 and caused economic losses of some 197.5 billion yuan (about 24 billion US dollars), Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Li Bengong, director of the disaster relief department under the Civil Affairs Ministry, said some 478 million Chinese were affected by natural disasters during the year.

About 2.87 million houses were damaged and harvests were affected on over 50 million hectares of farmland.

Earthquake damage

The major disasters included earthquakes, droughts, hailstorms, floods, typhoon, plant diseases, plagues of insects and blizzards, with earthquakes and droughts doing the most harm.

Li said that thanks to the efforts of central and local government, all people affected by natural disasters now had sufficient food and clothing and somewhere to live, and no major epidemics had broken out in disaster-stricken areas.

In all, China spent over 4.4 billion yuan (530 million US dollars) on disaster relief, he said.

Over 40 million people were given food relief, nearly 20 million received quilts and clothes, over one million had diseases cured free of charge, and 5.11 million were moved to safe places or resettled.

BBC Monitoring(http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.  
 

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