Current Events > China redirects flood towards small town to protect Beijing and golf courses

(+) Yeah! (+)

Apparently China's entire plan for flooding is to just redirect waters to surrounding small towns to protect their cities, to the point where a regional governor proudly declared that their town would be the "moat" to protect Beijing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66391331

As the flooding emergency in western Beijing turned deadlier at the beginning of this week, taking out bridges, washing away dozens of cars at a time, and wreaking havoc on the city, the decision was made to divert the raging waters.

The effect was almost immediate. The pressure came off in the capital, but the water had to go somewhere.

By Tuesday, it was hitting Zhuozhou in neighbouring Hebei Province with a force the locals didn't expect.

The problem is that the flood relief system is simply designed this way, according to Wang Weiluo, a Chinese engineer who now lives overseas after criticising China's construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

"China's flood control network has a pecking order of protection giving priority to big important cities like Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, with the lowest order of importance being rural areas. Under China's system, at the bottom are the ordinary people in the city and those in the countryside whose interests are not respected," he said.

But if the water had not been diverted into Hebei, what other option did the government have?

Mr Wang suggested that, below the Yongding River, there are a series of golf courses where the flood waters could have been released.

"To discharge the water there first would cause the least economic loss and have the least impact on human lives. But those who benefit from the country's flood relief priorities are those who play golf there".

As usual, it's the ordinary people who have to suffer the most.

ShineboxPhil posted...

What TF you call those china shills like Trowa? They never contribute anything other than propaganda.

Humble_Novice posted...

it's the ordinary people who have to suffer the most.

the populace involved weren't pleased to be sacrificed like that.

wealthy businessmen didn't want to give up the golf course either :(.

A shitty priority for a shitty system in a shitty society.