People-first disaster management better

A guiding document jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, says that cities need to strengthen their capability to cope with risks.

In particular, metropolises have large populations around central business districts, making those areas more vulnerable to accidents. The pandemic and increasing extreme weather events have put metropolises' accident and natural disaster-management capabilities to severe test.

While some have coped well with the emergencies, others have not.

But cities can learn from others' successes and failures and better cope with disasters in the future.

For example, city authorities swing into action after a calamity strikes.

However, which department should issue an alert, what different departments should do on receiving an alert, whether subways and schools should be closed, and what penalty departments should pay for failing to properly perform their duty are things that must be clearly defined.

For example, information on novel coronavirus infections and those who had come into close contact with infected people in some cities was leaked online, because of the absence of clearly defined rules and standards.

The guiding document addresses this problem, as one of its aims is to regulate the mechanisms for collecting and using personal information. It will clearly define which information can be collected and made public.

But metropolises' risk-control mechanism cannot be improved without the participation of the public. The guiding document makes it clear that volunteers and social organizations should receive proper training in risk control, and the public should be involved, if necessary, in tackling emergencies.

The experiences of metropolises can be good examples for small and medium-sized cities to emulate. But irrespective of the size of cities, all risk control actions should be guided by the basic principle of "people first".