Beijing has returned to normal Monday after being hit by a flash rainstorm last Saturday afternoon. However, the city's emergency response system couldn't keep up with Saturday's downpour and many shortcomings in infrastructure construction have been exposed. What needs to be done to strengthen Beijing's ability to minimize disaster damages? Let's find it out.

Departments related to city planning, traffic, electricity and flood prevention in the capital experienced a sleepless night due to the weekend's huge rainstorm, which resulted in injuries, collapsed houses and, if you can imagine, even worse traffic jams in downtown areas.

Wu Zhenghua, expert on disaster prevention and reduction, says the existing emergency response system still has some weak points despite the crucial upgrades made during and after the outbreak of SARS last year.

"We have only individual emergency plans, but lack a comprehensive emergency system. So our ability to deal with a huge rainstorm is low. Different departments failed to cooperate with each other to deal with the rainstorm."

In fact, the downpour caused five houses to topple and severe leaks in an estimated 4,700 others. And there were more than one hundred places along roads and in residential complexes where rainwater pooled and a number of problems ranging from very wet feet to monstrous traffic jams.

Urban planning expert from the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, Bian Lanchun says in addition to the emergency response system, the investment into infrastructure construction in the city should also be stepped up.

"We should improve quality of old and even dangerous houses in old districts. As for areas around downtown districts, drainage system should be improved to deal with pressure brought by large amounts of rainfall and snowfall within a very short period of time."

He adds that the infrastructure construction of a city is not as easy as putting up a building--it is actually a huge systematic project. Therefore, consistent efforts and investment are needed to guarantee a city develops all necessary infrastructures.

(CRI July 13, 2004)