[ 时间:2014-08-09 00:22:46 | 作者:Scott Murdoch | 来源:THE AUSTRALIAN ]
Beijing learns lessons on quakesEarthquake survivors wash clothes in a river near a temporary tent village at Longtoushan, in China’s southwest Yunnan province. Source: AFP < PrevNext >
THE image of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang walking 5km to the Yunnan province earthquake epicentre has prompted praise for the official response to the -nation’s latest natural disaster, which has killed 615 people.
For once, China reacted swiftly. It sent more than 12,000 -People’s Liberation Army soldiers, doctors and paramedics to the region after the 6.1-magnitude quake ripped through -remote, mountainous villages late on Sunday.
The response was in stark contrast to the time an earthquake shook Sichuan province in May 2008, killing almost 80,000 -people.
While the death toll from the Yunnan quake stands lower than in Sichuan, China has shown it has learnt from the criticism it faced in 2008 when it was savaged for being far too slow to respond.
Mr Li has been dubbed “China’s chief comforter” for his swift response, reaching the Ludian County epicentre early on Monday to co-ordinate the -official response. However, there are now questions whether China should be putting in place better preventive measures to reduce the damage from future natural disasters, -especially in earthquake-prone centres in the -nation’s south.
China Tianwang Human Rights Service founder Huang Qi told The Weekend Australian that authorities needed to be more proactive in ensuring buildings in prone areas were prepared for -potential quakes.
Most of the Ludian county population are migrant farmers who survive on about $US1 a day and live primarily in mud-brick houses.
“I want to emphasise that prevention is much more important than rescue,” Mr Huang said.
“The area where this earthquake has happened has suffered several quakes in the past few years, which makes it very fragile.
“The damage this time is to dilapidated houses. The authorities should have known that something like this could happen and helped residents there fit out their houses, reinforce them and help them to rebuild to make them stronger before this happened.”
Mr Huang said the damage had been exacerbated because building codes had not been adhered to.
“In the countryside, in distant and poor areas, there are few building regulations and people do not pay attention to them,” he said. “So that means there are many zones where the government should be supporting and subsidising people to improve their living conditions to make them safer.”
Independent commentator Wu Zuolai said the government needed to be more proactive in improving safety and living conditions in damage-prone areas, such as Yunnan.
“This earthquake, in terms of magnitude, was not that high but the damage has been major,’’ he said.
“In the past 10 years this area has suffered at least three earthquakes which caused damage. But the government has not taken local construction seriously so they should take a big responsibility for the damage this time.”
Despite a huge rescue effort, 114 people are still missing and 3134 are injured, of whom 343 are in a critical condition. It is estimated that 800,000 houses collapsed and a further 129,100 -were severely damaged.
Authorities expect the death toll to rise steadily in the next few days as the “golden hours” window, when people can be found alive, closes.
A new risk now is the rising prospect of a disease outbreak -because of high temperatures, dirty water and a lack of medication.
Additional reporting: Wang Yuanyuan
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