Henan floods show more must be done to address growing meteorological crises
People are evacuated from their neighborhoods in Weihui, Henan province, on July 26. (WANG FEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)
Zhengzhou, the capital of Central China's Henan province, is regarded as one of the star cities in China, having transformed from an unremarkable railway hub into a modern metropolis over the past decade. This is why the heavy loss of life the city suffered during the deadly floods in the province in late July was especially shocking.
The city, home to 12 million people, accounted for the lion's share of the total death toll in the province during the severe rainstorms. Yet Zhengzhou, whose population and GDP have increased nearly threefold over the past 10 years－its GDP hit more than 1.2 trillion yuan ($186.2 billion)－has rapidly modernized its infrastructure and has been a pioneer in its efforts to be a sponge city and smart city, which should have made it better able to respond to the heavy rainfall.
Rivers and lakes have natural laws to follow in their adjustments to floods. It is foolish to ignore those laws and rely on technology and manpower to tame the floodwaters. That’s putting the cart before the horse
Wang Yongjie, a professor of geography at Qiqihar University
However, the tragedy in Zhengzhou showed that unless advanced technologies and modern city planning are effectively integrated with an efficient and agile urban management system, subways, tunnels, underground parking lots and other modern urban infrastructure can become deathtraps in minutes in an extreme weather event.
Investigation underway
The central authorities are still carrying out an investigation into how the various local governments performed during the deadly floods in the province, which claimed 302 lives and left 50 missing.
But other cities must not just wait for the results; they should heed the lessons of Zhengzhou. The city's problematic response to the flash flood showed that as the skylines of Chinese cities soar higher and the built-up areas sprawl out to hold more residents－about 300 million rural residents have moved to the country's cities over the past three decades－the building of the underground spaces, the overconcentration of the population and the busy traffic system and large-scale industrial bases are all making cities more vulnerable to the tests of extreme weather events than ever before.
The dramatic increase in the rainfall in the north of the country over recent years－statistics show the rainfall in Henan has risen for 10 years in a row for instance－can be attributed to climate change, which is increasing the frequency and severity of deluges such as the one that caused so much heartache in Henan. That's why meteorologists and emergency response experts are urging the authorities to attach more significance to the prevention and control of floods in the north of the country while not relaxing their vigilance to the typhoons, droughts and tornadoes that are intensifying in the south.
Particularly, it has been suggested that the flow regulation function of the Three Gorges Dam in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, should be better harnessed to prevent and control floods and resist droughts in the areas down river.
At the same time the integrity of the dam needs to be carefully monitored, as the largest hydropower station in the world was designed and built before climate change and extreme weather events became such clear and pressing challenges.
People leave their homes via a floating, movable bridge in Weihui on July 22. (AN NENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)
Secondary dangers
On July 21, 2012, heavy rainfall in Beijing claimed the lives of 79 people, and a flood in Jinan, Shandong province, took 34 lives in 2007, because of the lack of early warnings, ineffectual and belated responses and poor self-rescue awareness.
The nuclear leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 should also ring the alarm bell for other countries, spurring them to include secondary disasters triggered in their contingency plans for natural disasters.
There are about 16,000 enterprises of high-risk industries located near rivers, and about 110 million people living in areas less than 1 kilometer from high-risk enterprises and heavy industries in China.
And statistics show nearly half of the nation's population live in high-risk regions prone to earthquakes, meteorological, geological or ocean disasters, and over 70 percent of its cities and two-thirds of the country's territory are regularly threatened by floods.
The economic losses caused by natural disasters in the country from 1990 to 2016 was over 300 billion yuan ($46.47 million), accounting for about 2 percent of the country's GDP, and one-fifth of the total global loss to such causes, during that period of time. The deaths caused by the natural disasters in China accounted for about 10 percent of the world total.
Forewarned and forearmed
As a major victim of extreme weather events, China must ensure it draws the necessary lessons from natural disasters such as the floods in Henan.
Mao Zhenhua, an economist with the Renmin University of China, says that the tragedy has shown that the warning system for extreme weather events must be improved. At present, even after the meteorological department signals a red alarm should be issued, it has to be approved by a chain of officials of various levels across different departments in a complicated bureaucratic system, which wastes precious time for people to prepare for the upcoming dangers.
He also suggests that, just as lifeboats are already a standard configuration on passenger liners simply because there is always the possibility they may be needed, cities must reserve enough disaster relief materials and supplies proportional to the size of their populations in case of emergency needs, as extreme weather can easily paralyze the intercity transport and communication links.
"The systems supplying power and water, and the telecom services must develop stronger disaster-resistant capabilities to ensure their reliability in emergencies such as extreme weather events as they concern not only people's survival needs, but are also vital to the emergency response, rescue and disaster relief efforts," Mao says.
Wang Yongjie, a professor of geography at Qiqihar University, says scientific city planning should not just mean the application of advanced technology and the construction of modern infrastructure facilities, but more importantly the development of cities should respect nature to the maximum extent.
"It is against the law of the nature to construct buildings along river banks in the floodplains of rivers and around lakes. Although the people might enjoy good views, they are putting themselves in danger," Wang said. "Rivers and lakes have natural laws to follow in their adjustments to floods. It is foolish to ignore those laws and rely on technology and manpower to tame the floodwaters. That's putting the cart before the horse."
She urged the cities on the Chinese mainland to learn from Hong Kong in showing foresight in city planning, suggesting they should ensure they maintain enough forest reserves, as these not only make cities more pleasant to live in and provide a habitat for wildlife, they can also help cities resist natural disasters more effectively.
She also advises the education authorities to make education on climate change, what to do in an extreme weather emergency and self-rescue techniques part of the country's compulsory education curriculum to raise the public's awareness of the dangers and how to respond to them.
Although these actions at the city level are indispensable to minimize the loss of life and property, accelerated action at the national and global level is also needed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are the root cause of the global temperature rise and thus the increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
Call for global action
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations, extreme weather events, including extremely low and high temperatures, serious droughts and heavy rainfall, have become increasingly frequent since the middle of the last century, and will become more frequent this century, threatening global food supplies, water resources and energy security.
As extreme weather events are no longer "black swans" but "gray rhinos", and a common challenge to all countries, Song Lianchun, director of the National Meteorological Center, suggests that the countries should integrate climate change adaptation and climate disaster prevention into their national development strategies.
"It is necessary for the countries to collaborate with each other to strengthen the monitoring, early warning and forecasting of extreme weather events and other important climate phenomena, and enhance the overall disaster prevention awareness and adaptability of the whole society," Song told the media after the Henan floods.
