Tackling soil erosion helps quake-hit area

SHIYAN village in southwest Sichuan Province spent years in recovery after the magnitude 8 earthquake in 2008 hit the province.

Hundreds of hectares of landslide areas caused by the earthquake are now covered with fruit trees in Shiyan, Beichuan County, one of the worst-hit areas during the earthquake.

The change came after a cooperation program was launched in 2010 between the Chinese and Japanese governments to restore vegetation in quake-hit areas.

The program introduced a method of putting soil bags on landslide areas to prevent water and soil erosion.

“The method introduced by Japanese technicians was proven effective in the soil erosion prevention and local vegetation recovery in Beichuan,” said Zhu Chenglin, deputy director of the county’s forestry department. By 2013, 22 hectares of landslide areas have restored vegetation in Shiyan.

Over the past decade after the earthquake, China has also been working with international organizations for reconstruction of devasted areas.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been focusing on efforts to reduce disaster impact on children and help them to recover from the trauma of the earthquake.

In 2015, UNICEF China and several agencies of the Chinese government launched a disaster risk reduction program in Sichuan, aiming to help make communities less vulnerable to and better prepared for disasters.