Over the past few years China has been experiencing increasingly long flood seasons, extending into the Autumn months, according to a recent Operations Update by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Pam Logan, President of the US-based Kham Aid Foundation, reports on a training program to preserve and enhance local architectural styles in ethnic Tibetan area of western Sichuan.

An Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction, which concluded on September 29 in Beijing, confirmed the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre's (ADPC) accession to the rank of inter-governmental organisation, a status approved in February by the Thai government in February this year.

This summer brought disastrous floods across many parts of China – as usual, for the country is both prone and habituated to natural disasters of every kind. Economic losses run at close to one percent of GDP, although loss of life has been progressively reduced by early warning systems and engineering solutions, and disaster prevention efforts now also embrace community and administrative capacity building. However, as Matt Perrement reports, there may be plenty more trouble in store.

Disaster relief efforts gathered pace in early August as typhoon Matsa laid waste to many areas of eastern China and heavy rains continued to leave a trail of destruction stretching from Guangxi in the far south-west to Heilongjiang in the north-east.

'Water is a sensitive topic in China' said a Water Bureau official in a rural county seat 50 kilometres southwest of Beijing on a hot July afternoon, explaining to China Development Brief why he would not discuss the subject. 'Besides, if news of our water shortage got out, we wouldn't be able to convince industry to invest in our county'

Natural disasters are regular occurrences in China, but the floods of this summer were exceptional. Not just for their extent and severity; nor just because water was diverted to rural areas in order to protect cities; nor just because economic costs, including impact on production (now officially estimated at USD30 billion) may throw the economy off course from its 8% growth target for this year - but also because of notable changes in the organisation of the national response. New strategies and concerns are emerging among international donor agencies too.