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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

More Flooding in China: Twenty Scenes from Taiyuan, Shanxi

In a piece about widespread flooding in China this year, Te-Ping Chen explored the possible causes, such as:
“China’s urban construction was carried out at too fast a pace,” says Jia Haifeng, associate professor with Tsinghua University’s environmental science and engineering department. Officials have tended to focus on visible projects such as roads, bridges and housing, he said. “They emphasized infrastructure above ground, but not so much infrastructure below ground.”

Many roads are built without being properly leveled, said Andrew Buck, an urban planner at Beijing landscape-architecture firm Turenscape, meaning that water easily accumulates. Older drainage systems often can’t accommodate current demands.
During my recent time in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi in northern China, I noticed it too apparently lacked appropriate infrastructure to deal with wet weather. Almost any time it rained, some streets became challenging to cross by foot or walk on (sometimes there isn't a useable sidewalk) due to water quickly accumulating in places.

Today the rain was especially heavy. When I went out for lunch I was soon faced with an unusual decision: try looking for food in another direction or step into water nearly knee-deep with a slight smell of sewage. I had deliberately put on sandals, was wearing shorts, and didn't have any open sores, so I figured I would take the submerged route to get a better sense of the extent of the flooding.

Below is a series of photos presented in the order they were taken during a brief outing this afternoon in a popular central shopping district. They include scenes of people crossing roads, vehicles trying to make it through high water, not-so-lucky vehicles, people dumping out water from an underground garage, a person clearing debris from a grating where water drained, and water flowing out of a sewer hole. Based on the pattern of garbage on the sidewalks, the flooding had already subsided from its high point by the time I made it outside. None of what I saw was as dramatic as what I experienced in Hengyang, Hunan, two years ago — in other words, no chengguan offered me a ride on a raft. It also wasn't as dramatic as many other recent examples of flooding in China. But the photos capture a side of life in a city, and in a country, in need of a water drainage infrastructure upgrade.

Car driving on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



car driving on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



Scooter and people on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



stalled car, person riding a bicycle, and people walking on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



young man and woman with umbrella on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



woman and girl with an umbrella walking on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



two young woman pulling up their skirts to avoid getting them wet on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



people crossing a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



men dumping out water from a flooded garage



men dumping out water from a flooded underground garage



SUV driving on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



woman pushing scooter on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



people crossing a flooded street next to a Starbucks in Taiyuan, China



man riding a motorbike on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



car driving on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



man standing in a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



open sewer hole cover in a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



young man clearing debris from a grating for drainage on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



motor-rickshaw on a flooded street in Taiyuan, China



water coming out of a sewer hole on a sidewalk next to a flooded street in Taiyuan, China

2 comments:

  1. these are all near my apartment :)

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    Replies
    1. The area seems so flat, so I was surprised to see how quickly the conditions could change just walking down the street.

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