From Chinese Press

Make social security houses safe

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-30 09:55

Six construction enterprises have agreed to jointly build the biggest resettlement project for people displaced by demolitions in Qinghai province. But even before completion of the social security project, faults have been found in 21 of the buildings - and some of them needed to be pulled down and rebuilt, says an article on Xinhuanet.com. Excerpts:

A recent survey shows that the mad rush to meet the project's deadline, fear of spending and lack of proper supervision are the three main reasons why the quality of social security housing units in Qinghai province was so poor.

But the six companies must meet the deadline because time is of essence for the unprecedented project, which in turn is linked to officials' political achievement.

Perhaps the rising prices of construction materials have prompted construction companies to pay less attention to the quality of materials used.

Though different from commodity housing, social security housing is still built for people. It is imperative that construction companies follow the principle of safety first, because the quality of the houses not only concerns residents' life security, it is also closely related to the local government's image.

The quality of housing units is so poor because local governments pay little attention to such issues. It is always easier for them to transfer land-use rights to build commercial housing, because that means making more money. Such an attitude inevitably leads to loose construction specifications.

To guarantee the quality and safety of such houses, local governments have to change their basic understanding of social security housing. Besides, they have to strengthen their accountability system so that medium- and low-income groups really benefit from social security housing projects.

(China Daily 05/30/2011 page9)