The State Council published national response plans for nine
types of emergencies on Sunday, ranging from plane crashes and
nuclear power plant disasters to workplace incidents and
telecommunications network failures.
It is the first time the government has worked out
comprehensive, detailed crisis management plans such as these.
The significance of the plans is enormous. They will definitely
improve the nation's preparedness for emergencies and reduce human
and material losses.
With these plans, the nation is expected to be more prompt and
adept when facing crises such as the SARS epidemic of 2003, the
pollution of the Songhua River last year and a blocked railway
mainline last week in central China, which led to dangerously
overcrowded stations.
Different departments and governments at lower levels are
drafting their own plans according to specific situations under
their jurisdictions.
What is more important is organizing drills to test the
effectiveness of the plans, to find flaws and to make
modifications.
Improving the plans should be a progressive process. Necessary
modifications should be made whenever conditions change.
Information about how affected citizens should react in
emergencies should also be publicized so people know what to do to
protect themselves and others, and to cooperate with emergency
management authorities.
China is experienced in dealing with emergencies. But serious
incidents in many sectors are relatively new phenomena for the
majority of the country.
Subways and airplanes have become popular means of
transportation only in recent years.
Some types of emergencies have been around for a long time, but
risk has grown exponentially in recent years with changes in
circumstances.
The damage that could be caused by environmental incidents has
grown steadily with the rapidly increasing size of industry. The
danger of epidemics has been magnified by increased international
exchanges.
In addition, public emergency management in the modern sense is
still new to China.
Seeing the threats posed by fresh potential dangers and weakness
in crisis management, China has begun to take action.
The first meaningful step the government took was in information
disclosure.
Governments at different levels have gradually accepted the
practice of informing the public about incidents and making
transparent the process through which the government is dealing
with crises.
A set of general guidelines for emergency response issued
earlier this month by the State Council legalized requirements for
transparency in public safety incidents and stipulated penalties
for those burying information.
Preparedness, coordination of related parties and information
transparency are among the key elements of emergency
management.
Response procedures and requirements for transparency are
already in place. Now smooth co-ordination is needed to improve
them.
Safety education for the public has long been a weak point of
China's public management. Drills for emergencies are rarely heard
of.
Education has been somewhat improved in some primary and high
schools. But more efforts are needed to make the information reach
the general public.
(China Daily January 24, 2006)