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Q: What is wrong with Beijing's infrastructure? Why are the floods so bad?
There isn't a river. Seriously, the fact is most cities are built along rivers or near the sea. Thus water has a place to go. It runs along streets into sewers and into the river or sea.
-Beijing has pavements everywhere, but didn't build enough drains.
-But to be honest, it seems many of the deaths are from landslides in suburbs. This happens all the time in South and Central America.
you need to also look at city planning. 20-30 years ago people would not expect Beijing to boom like it has so it is left with legacy infrastructure. To build a more adequate system is not feasible now due to the size of the city it would cause major disruptions to traffic, tearing down of buildings and so on.
It's the same in India and Pakistan. I have read so many times of unbelievable rain and flooding there.
Heck it's happening in the UK, (although to a lesser extent), widespread use of concrete walkways, pedestrian areas and increased road building leads to excessive run off, as the water cannot get soaked up, if insufficient drainage is built in floods are inevitable.
crimochina:
are you saying that in one of the most rainy countries , they do not have effective drainage. that is comparable to china?
Hugh.G.Rection:
Comparable to China? I don't know as I'm not in any of the flooded parts of China. But the UK has had several serious floods over the last few years and many UK experts put this down to the huge increase in building, of houses, roads and other items that cause a lot of run off. It is this run off that is largely causing the floods. Now if there is too much run off, logic says there is insufficient drainage. So yes, I am saying that in parts of the UK the drainage is insufficient, I cannot compare that to China for reasons I've already given.
Hugh.G.Rection:
P.S. Also it is this run off apparently that is causing the water to run AWAY from the reservoirs and hence the UK until recently had an official drought in large areas of England. Or at least that was quoted as ONE of the reasons.
crimochina:
well where i'm from it rains like it did in beijing 3-5 times a year. the small amount of flooding disappears minutes afterward. i was in beijing during the storm , the streets around my hotel started to flood minutes after the rain started to flood. when i walk the streets i see the small drainage vents. every spring-summer is the rainy season. build a better drainage system and stop using the "all other countries have the same problem" line. the people thought of the poor drainage system as a mild inconvenience before that rain storm, wear those big rain boats to wade through the water. now they see when a serious rain storm hits people could lose their lives.
china has a problem. focus! china has a problem! let 's try to fix it . instead of claiming other developed countries have the same problems.
ignorance really they had the most rainfall in 65 years when this happens in any country its just mother nature just like new orleans in the us its just mother nature tornados hurricane floods sanamis earthquakes mother nature hope you really understand this go get an education before u ask idiotic questions
In my hometown in the U.K last year we had some small floods and was due to 2 weeks rainfall coming down in a few hours and its just some freak weather you see. Here in China i am in Ningxia and floods hit the other night. i saw two cars underwater and as its a desert city and hardly rains was quite a sight i even somehow waded back on my moped. Here i put it down to a hell alot of rain, poor drainage system and uneven roads
crimochina:
exactly, in beijing the rain was actually not that bad. we get rain storms like that 3-5 times a year in jersey and no serious flooding. in the first few minutes the water was up past my toes.
