Steps to make cities safer

After a series of cave-ins in several cities, many residents are asking why the cities they are so familiar with have become so unsafe, says an article in Youth Times. Excerpts:

Two people died after falling into a 10-meter-deep pit caused by a road cave-in in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. Seven such cave-ins were reported from the city in nine days, between Aug 9 and 17.

In Dalian, a high-school student was seriously injured and suffered burns after he fell into a "heated well" when a road caved in.

Our cities are becoming increasingly stranger and unsafe. Quality urban life is closely related to public facilities. And every time an extreme event like flooding or cave-in happens it jeopardizes people's life and livelihood further.

The flooding in Beijing after the July 21 thundershower exposed the deficiency of the city's drainage system, and the cave-ins in other cities point to the use of substandard materials in and poor management of urban infrastructure. Cities are becoming unsafe because of incompatible supporting facilities. If we fail to find the reasons behind incidents like the cave-ins, it will be impossible to avoid similar tragedies.

Perhaps, we should slow down a bit in our development drive to allow morality and conscience to catch up with the fancy appearance of cities. And hopefully, the authorities will set up an effective accountability mechanism to prepare for such eventualities in advance.

(China Daily 08/24/2012 page9)