Beijing municipal authorities are planning to increase the
number of emergency shelters downtown to 100, to ready the city for
natural disasters such as earthquakes.
The plan, unveiled by the Beijing urban planning administration,
said more than 100 shelters will be built over the next few years,
meaning people living and working in the downtown area will never
be more than a 20-minute walk from the nearest one, the Beijing
News reported yesterday.
Liu Songqing, deputy director of the Beijing seismological
bureau, said: "The potential damage caused by earthquakes will
increase with fast-paced urbanization."
The capital has not been hit by a major earthquake in more than
30 years.
Tremors from a powerful quake in 1976, in Tangshan, Hebei Province, 200 km east of Beijing, saw
189 people killed in the capital alone.
Liu said that as a mega-city, Beijing provides enormous
opportunities for people to work and live and should similarly be
able to protect its residents in case of emergencies.
Hosting massive events, such as next year's Olympics, makes the
construction of emergency facilities even more pressing, he
added.
Liu said 20 to 30 new shelters will be built each year, to
provide protection for up to 2 million people.
The city built its first emergency shelter in 2003. So far,
there are 28 locations able to serve as shelters with a capacity to
hold 2 million people.
Almost all residents, however, are unaware of such places and
how to use them.
A recent survey by Renmin University showed close to half the
650 people polled were unaware of the emergency shelters, with just
over half not knowing the location of the one nearest their
homes.
Haidian, Yuan-Dynasty Relics and Chaoyang parks are the major
locations for temporary shelters.
In the Yuan-Dynasty Relics Park, a series of facilities
providing medical treatment, drinking water and power generation
have been built under hills.
(China Daily November 6, 2007)
