Comment

UK letting things slide compared with Beijing

By Edward Mills (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-08 08:07

It's that season again in the UK. Snow and cold environmental factors have caused havoc across the entire country, resulting in significant numbers of the population not arriving for employment, key services and transport being disrupted and general weather-related mayhem.

Indeed, the particularly poor conditions caused around 40 percent of the workforce to fail to make it in on one of the worst days around the country. Additionally, only 1 in 10 postal deliveries were made.

The transport system was severely affected too - many trains and bus services did not run and Gatwick, one of the UK's major airports, was also closed for a day alongside several minor airports and there were many delays at Heathrow.

Granted, the weather could be considered unexpected, certainly it was to the Met Office. Perhaps equally it could be said to have arrived a little earlier in the year than usual, but, after being caught completely off-guard last year in near identical weather conditions, one would think measures would have been put in place to combat these problems. It seems clear that they have not been effective enough.

We haven't yet had snow this year in Beijing of course - it would seem the UK has worse temperatures than us in an unusual turn of fortune. While London shivered below freezing for the majority of last week, Beijing has remained resolutely above zero for now.

Those of us present in Beijing last year, however, will remember a completely different story with the snow starting surprisingly early in the winter and even receiving a record amount of snow in January - the most in nearly 60 years.

Up to 12 inches of snow descended on the Chinese capital during that time, which was considerably more than is currently blighting the UK. The snow did cause the mass cancellation of flights and closure of schools in the immediate proximity of the snowfall. That said, within a few days, the city was functioning efficiently again despite the temperature remaining around -10 C.

The government here was very quick to respond to the situation, mobilizing over 300,000 people to help deal with the problem. As many as 7,000 traffic police were also deployed to help keep traffic moving as snow was cleared away. While there were some small disruptions to everyday life, the majority of inconveniences were avoided.

It would seem my home country could learn a few lessons from places like Beijing, when it comes to effective emergency management in the face of unexpected snowfall. Certainly it is true that snow impacted on more of the UK proportionately than it did in China, but as a developed country, one would expect more effective weather management.

Even the delivery of my Christmas presents to a friend returning to Beijing this weekend were caught up in the poor conditions, failing to arrive at their destination on time - arguably one of the more devastating casualties to the weather.

Snow is expected to arrive in Beijing at some point this winter, but it is unlikely that one will be snowed in to the extent that one cannot move around the city or even to the level where it is possible to become trapped in a bar or restaurant, like an arguably lucky few residents were in the UK. It's sure that due to effective preparation for poor weather conditions, the city won't fall victim to snow chaos.