Capital's drainage system has design flaws: expert

One of the main designers of Beijing's drainage network has admitted that the city's drainage system has fundamental flaws as it is designed on the importance of roads and regions rather than actual drainage needs, Beijing News reports.

Huang Qian, deputy chief engineer of the Beijing General Municipal Engineer Design and Research Institute stated in an interview with the Beijing News that the drainage network of a city should be designed according to water collection areas. But, Beijing's drainage design plans in 2006 and 2011 gave priority to major urban areas.

Huang believes that, in the past few decades, 90 percent of the drainage pipelines have worked well and is largely sufficient. The current problem is that several lower regions experienced extraordinary downpours.

To improve the drainage system, Huang suggests using plastic materials in pipelines, which could improve the drainage speed by 18 to 55 percent.

He also suggests adopting rainwater usage measures, such as expanding green fields in the city to drive more water underground and building more reservoirs to collect the rainwater. Such measures would not only improve the ecosystem in the city but also reduce drainage pressure.

As a new body was discovered on Tuesday in Fangshan District, the downpour in Beijing on July 21 cost 79 lives.