Period covered: January to December 2013
Overview
5 May 2014 In the past year, the East Asia Regional Delegation (EARD) has continued to support the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) on both long-term development programmes as well as emergency response.
Earthquakes, heavy rainfall/floods, landslides and typhoons are the main natural disasters affecting China. In 2013, these disasters left 1,851 people dead, 433 people missing, 388 million people affected, over 12 million people evacuated, 875,000 buildings collapsed and caused direct economic losses of CNY 580.84 billion. With International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) support, RCSC has stepped up its role in responding to these disasters. One of the prominent achievements is the increased capacity of RCSC emergency response teams (ERTs) in both domestic and international operations.
Landslides – A total of 46 people1 were killed after a landslide hit Zhenxiong County, Zhaotong City in Yunnan Province on 11 January, while on 29 March, another landslide left 66 people dead and 17 people missing at a mining site of Mozhugongka County, Lhasa City of Tibet.
Lushan Earthquake – On 20 April, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake whose epicentre was located near Lushan County, Ya’an Prefecture in Sichuan province leaving 196 people dead, caused 21 others2 missing and 11,470 people injured. Nearly 2 million people have been affected across 19 prefectures and 115 counties of the province. It was also reported that 139,500 houses have collapsed.
RCSC had sent a total of 25 emergency response teams (ERTs) with 400 team members and mobilized 113 relief vehicles to the affected areas for its emergency operation. IFRC allocated CHF 400,000 Disaster Emergency Response Fund (DREF) for mass sanitation ERT deployment, hygiene promotion, and relief items distribution. It provided assistance to 5,000 most affected and displaced families.
RCSC started its recovery and reconstruction projects since August which covers a total of 254 projects and utilized at least CNY 600 million from donation.
Gansu Earthquake – A 6.6-magnitude earthquake jolted a juncture region of Min and Zhang County of Dingxi prefecture in northwest China's Gansu province on 22 July 2013, leaving 95 dead, 14 missing, 1,001 injured, and 581,600 people affected.
Floods in Northeast China – From July to August, heavy rains and floods hit Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning province in northeast China. The floods caused 112 deaths with 88 missing and a direct economic loss of CNY 78 million. This flood was considered the most severe one in the local history since 1984.
Frequent Typhoons in South China – In August, No. 9 typhoon “Feiyan”, No. 11 typhoon “Youte”, No. 12 “Tanmei” made landfalls successively in south China and left 83 people dead, 13 people missing and 1.514 million people displaced. The direct economic loss was calculated to be more than CNY 3 billion. On 11 November No. 30 typhoon “Haiyan” reached the most southern parts of China after causing devastating damage in Philippines resulting in a total of seven deaths with four people missing. Also, 181,000 people were evacuated in Hainan province. The direct economic losses caused were CNY 3.97 billion in the province, CNY 0.34 billion in Guangxi and CNY 39 million in Guangdong.
The Integrated Community Resilience and Development (ICRD) Programme has been launched in three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in August 2013.
RCSC’s tuberculosis (TB) project is running smoothly with more patients having access to the referral services.
With the support of American Red Cross and IFRC’s disaster preparedness (DP) centre, RCSC managed to adapt a first aid mobile application model successfully.
Working in partnership
The programmes highlighted in this report are supported through the generous donations of partners that include the American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, British Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross/Canadian government, Finnish Red Cross/Finnish government, Japanese Red Cross Society, as well as Eli Lilly and the United Way. RCSC has active programmes of bilateral cooperation with other members of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, including its special autonomous branches in Hong Kong and Macao, the American, Australian, British, Canadian, Finnish, Japanese, Netherlands, Norwegian, Spanish and Swiss Red Cross societies as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Other close international partners of the RCSC include UNFPA, the Gates Foundation, and many more. The RCSC coordinates closely with the ministry of health and civil affairs at local and national levels, ensuring that Red Cross activities are focused in areas where they have greater impact and cooperation from the local governments. Local organizations and community groups are important local partners for implementing activities, as well as reaching groups that might otherwise be difficult to access, such as minority communities. The RCSC also participates in collaborative efforts with other stakeholders and organizations working in related fields, such as the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).
On behalf of the RCSC, IFRC would like to thank all partners for their support.
