Domestic Affairs

"2010 flood-fighting spirit" winning applause

By Bi Shicheng (People's Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-23 09:36

The "2010 flood-fighting spirit"calls for introspection or re-examination of public policies and management improvement. Take a seven-or-eight-century-old underground drainage network discovered some times ago in the city of Ganzhou in east China's Jiangxi province; it has given much enlightenment or inspiration to people today.

The 100,000 residents in an ancient town of Ganzhou city are currently safe and sound, thanks to intact drains built during the imperial Song Dynasty (960-1279). "They built 12 water gates at the mouth of the drain,… The original Song Dynasty system and hundred of ponds scatter across the city as reservoirs. … As a consequence, the ancient town is the only one of Ganzhou's 18 districts not to suffer from flooding.

This"legacy"conserved for the benefit of common people has led everybody nowadays to reconsider the disaster control ability of a modern city. After the incessant rainfall inundates a city and exposes the pitiable conditions of its drainage system, people would come to recognize that the root cause, however, is owed partially to the erroneous zone for fulfilling in one's political career with a focus only limited to construction of high-rises rather than the subterraneous drainage system.

If you want to see how civilized a modern city is, you should better first of all inspect its subterraneous water pipes and other hardware. And floods prompt people to further uplift or upgrade the city's civilization levels.

The "2010 flood-fighting spirit" requires a much more careful observation of varied environmental issues. Central China's Hubei province, once known as "a province with 1,000 lakes", big and small, has lost about 100 lakes in the last 50 years or so, according to the related data made available from the Wuhan Municipal Water Affairs Bureau, and major lakes each with an area of over 10 square kilometers have also been shrinking in space around China.

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Yichang, Hubei province discharged water on Tuesday. The facility withstood its largest flood control test since it was completed last year, as the flow on the river's upper reaches topped 70,000 cubic meters a second – 20,000 cubic meters more than the monstrous 1998 flood that killed 4,150 people. In face of severe floods, however, people should underline more the all-round protection of environment beyond the mammoth Three Gorges Dam.

Whatever a nation loses in natural disasters, it will be compensated with the progress to make in its wake. This compensation will not befall on the initiative, and it would calls for people's engagement in introspection, with the firm resolve, self-discipline and self-confident spirits. So, we are convinced that with a 12-year progress scored since the devastating 1998 floods, the "2010 flood-fighting spirit"will give rise to more wisdom, more courage and greater strength.