Cold winds, heavy snow and
sleet, has chilled the Dragon over the past one month now and the Lunar
New Year seems to bring little hope for millions of Chinese stranded in
the East waiting for trains and airplanes to take them home for the
holidays. Given the number of people affected, it could well be a winter
tsunami for the people in many parts of the country. China suffered the
worst winter in decades with raging snow storms and heavy snow freezing
traffic, closing air ports and leaving many citizens stranded in the
last week of the month.
The period of snow extended for a long time with
icy winds blowing from 10 January onwards. The disaster was particularly
galling for over 180 million Chinese workers eagerly waiting on the
Western coast towns of Guangzhou to trek home for the Lunar New Year
beginning 7 February. This period generally sees festivities for two
weeks but this time it is apparent that winter storms have affected
celebrations. Snow storms led to cancellation of over 3,250 flights as
per the official Xinhua news agency, delayed 5,550 flights and caused
380 planes to be diverted.
Central, eastern and southern China was the most severely affected. The
nine areas very seriously affected by snow included Hunan, Hubei,
Guizhou, Anhui, Jiangxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces, the Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region and Chongqing City. For the large number of migrant
workers in Guangzhou, the year’s only break from work to visit their
families was impacted as power lines connecting electric trains snapped
and highways were closed. Combined with this was a rise in coal prices
and shortage of gasoline and power which greatly impacted the common
man. Premier Wen Jiabao visited passengers stranded at the railway
station in the southern city of Guangzhou and exhorted local officials,
"After 30 years of reform and opening up, we've accumulated a strong
material foundation and as long as we're vigorously organized, we will
be fully able to vanquish the current hardship."
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) met to overcome the crisis on 29 January even as emergency
was reaching the peak and directed local authorities to provide succour
to the people. The Politburo statement indicated that, “The top priority
task at present is to ensure electricity supply and smooth
communications and transport by every possible means." It urged local
authorities to overcome all difficulties to increase coal output and
guarantee supply of coal for power plants. A frequent reference to the
Chinese saying, "When one place is in trouble, assistance comes from all
squares", indicated focus of officials to garner support for the needy.
The PLA emergency response group also went into action after requests
were received from the State Disaster Relief Commission. 300 lakh troops
and 1.1 million reservists were reportedly activated. The first effort
involved issue of quits and coats from military ware houses. The air
force was also pressed into service with four Chinese air force Ilyushin
II-76 military transport aircraft flying relief material to the affected
areas. The PLA staff indicated that effort was diverted from military
tasks to support the national relief effort within 50 minutes. “PLA
headquarters and relevant military districts have had tanks and armored
cars on standby and they can be put into use to break ice on the roads
at the request of local governments," said Senior Colonel Tian Yixiang
of the emergency response group. As per Tian it is a constitutional
obligation under the law for the PLA to take up relief work. Over
207,000 persons were reportedly deployed for emergency relief work with
the PLA web site showing many photographs of Chinese soldiers breaking
ice and clearing roads. The PLA Headquarters also directed the Military
commands and districts to respond to the relief effort at the local
level.
A report in the PLA Daily by Luo Bin and Wang Yongqing indicated that
the Guangzhou Military Area Command had sent out, “over 17,000
persons/times of servicemen, 356,000 persons/times of the militia and
the reserve force and 4,500 vehicles/times to participate in snow
disaster relief operations in some provinces (autonomous regions) in
central and southern China. They had removed snow and ice on 1,700 km of
roads, repaired 1,300 km of power lines and communication cables,
rush-transported more than 1,000 tons of materials and evacuated over
70,000 stranded people," by 29 January.
Yet the magnitude of disaster with heavy snow covering streets and
buildings across the country impacting 100 million people proved to be
unequal to the scale of tragedy. While reports of loss of life have been
limited, the human and material impact will take some time for recovery.
While disasters of this magnitude during winters are not unknown across
the World, in the case of China the mass of people affected makes the
impact even more telling. China now needs to evolve much like India mass
disaster management schemes which can give relief to hundreds and
thousands of people at a time rather than tens for which the present
schemes are drafted.
February 3, 2008
Stock Image of the Great Wall of China
under license with Gettyimages.com
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