Japan Trains Chinese Officials for Erosion-controlChinese erosion-control officials and technicians are taking week-long training courses under a Sino-Japanese technological cooperation program to curb landslides and debris flows.The training program, staring from Tuesday, is the first of its kind since last year's official launch of the Sino-Japanese training scheme during the 2000-2005 period and about 40 personnel training courses are to be offered by Japanese experts for some 2, 000 Chinese professionals, Thursday's China Daily reported. Two experts from Japan International Cooperation Agency will give lectures for some 60 Chinese personnel on the counter- measures used by Japan to control sediment-related disasters and analyze case studies of such geographic hazards. Chinese and Japanese experts will also hold a seminar on the preventive technologies of landslide and slope failure to develop a warning system to monitor landslide and mudslides along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is plagued by geographic disasters, the newspaper said. There are some 150,000 landslide black spots and some 10,000 valleys prone to debris flow in more than 100,000 square kilometers of the areas upstream of the Yangtze River, with a territory of more than one million square kilometers, survey statistics from Yangtze River Water Resources Committee revealed. "Geographic hazards have become one of the worst factors affecting the region's economic development and social stability, and its time for China to mitigate such damages through adopting advanced technologies," the newspaper quoted a water official as saying. |
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