China will improve its emergency responses to extreme weather caused by global warming, E Jingping, vice minister of water resources, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Climate change poses a long-term threat to China's emergency response system," he said, citing "exceptionally serious" floods and droughts in the country last year.

"Provinces including Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi suffered exceptionally heavy torrential rains and floods that caused several deaths and casualties while Chongqing Municipality and east of Sichuan Province were hit by severe droughts that were rarely seen," he said.

Climate change has affected water resource distribution in China, with decreasing runoff observed over the past four decades in the six major rivers -- Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Songhuajiang River, Yangtze River and Pearl River.

Over the next two to three years, the government will largely complete the renovation of large and medium-sized reservoirs in the country that are in a poor state, as well as key small ones, said the vice minister.

The country will also monitor reservoirs and rivers and rescue mechanisms more closely, he said.

China has more than 85,000 reservoirs, of which 30,000 have serious problems, including 200 large and 1,600 medium-sized reservoirs.

Early in June, the ministry published the names of safety liability officials for 486 reservoirs, urging all-level government administrative executives to take responsibility for the safety of local reservoirs.

On April 19, 1,700 people had to be evacuated from four villages after a dam on the Xiaohaizi Reservoir in northwestern Gansu Province cracked, causing water to flood the surrounding area and destroying a highway bridge.

The reservoir, with a capacity of 3.5 million cubic meters, was initially built in 1958, and had undergone several renovation and expansion projects, the most recent from 2002 to 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2007)