While the cause of the Shenzhen landslide is being investigated, people were shocked to find the massive earth that buried 33 buildings, including 14 factory buildings, two office buildings, one canteen, three dormitories and 13 low-rise buildings, was actually from an abandoned quarry that was transformed into a trash dump.
Official statistics showed the landslide covered 380,000 square meters with residue soil of 10 meters deep. It also damaged a section of the second West-to-East natural gas pipeline, partially cutting off the natural gas supply to Hong Kong.
" Who could have thought the danger would come from the dump? " said Li Qiying.
Wang Yongquan, another resident who narrowly escaped with his five-year-old daughter, said he often saw trucks carry construction waste to the dump. "We never thought it could be dangerous," he said.
As the three severe tragedies all occurred in economically better-off areas, many Chinese are calling for an overhaul of loopholes in city management to ensure people's lives.
DISASTER PREVENTION MATTERS MORE
Rescuer Chen Lijin, an officer with the armed police force who also took part in the Tianjin blast rescue, said the rescue work is always challenging.
"Human life is the most precious, and precaution is of paramount importance. Relevant departments should take a closer look at safety to prevent such kind of things from happening again," said he.
Teng Wuxiao, a researcher of urban public safety with Fudan University in Shanghai, said, "The tragedies compel us to ask: why we did not recognize the safety hazards beforehand?"
"Compared with the ability to deal with the aftermath, we are still lacking risk assessment and disaster prevention," he said.
The dump site responsible for the Shenzhen landslide had been there for years. The risk hazard should have been foreseeable and safety measures should have been adopted," he added.
Zhong Kaibin, professor of emergency management with Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, agreed that Chinese cities should improve their safety pre-warning mechanisms and carry out systematic risk assessment.
Local authorities should no longer place the importance of economy over that of public safety. The new concept of achieving people-oriented urban development proposed by the central leadership must be seriously implemented, he added.
In a statement released on Tuesday following the Central Urban Work Conference, China's policymakers pledged to optimize the urban development mechanism, stressing that safety should be the top priority in city development and management.
"There is no shortcut in city management. Only by seriously implementing safety measures in every alleyway, every community and every factory of the cities can we really ensure a healthy growth," Teng Wuxiao said.
