Flood control vision

The question Beijing residents are eager to ask the municipal government now the rainy season has started, is: Will the floods that killed 77 people on July 21 last year be repeated?

The answer is no, thanks to preparations the capital has made, despite weather forecasts predicting this summer's rainfall will be 10 to 20 percent more than the yearly average.

All the waterways have been dredged, so have all the drainage pipes. Advanced equipment has been installed to monitor the water levels in major waterways and test the depth of water in the major underpasses that are vulnerable to rainstorms. Flood response plans have been made for every vulnerable road section, underpasses in particular, to prevent disasters. Yellow and red danger marks have been drawn at more than 400 spots where rainwater pools easily. Once a storm strikes, guards will be sent to danger spots to give warnings.

All these efforts are commendable. There is reason to believe that last year's tragedy will not be repeated.

But what the Beijing government has done is just to address the symptoms rather than the root cause. Rainwater pooling in underpasses has been a chronic problem. Visionary urban planning years ago would have saved all the trouble today.

Beijing authorities admitted last year that the city's drainage system could only cope with precipitation of less than 30 millimeters an hour. Such a drainage system leaves much to be desired.

We know it will be very costly to replace the old drainage system with a more effective one. But the authorities cannot always resort to stopgap measures. Palliative remedies will neither save money nor solve the problem once and for all.

For Beijing, a city that has long been bothered by the lack of water, an effective drainage system along with a system for collecting rainwater is necessary in the long run.

So, apart from the measures that have been taken to avoid fatal disasters caused by rainstorms, a visionary plan needs to be drawn up to turn the precipitation during the rainy season into a resource that will help quench the city's thirst for water.

(China Daily 06/05/2013 page8)