Source: People's Daily
In recent years, accidents in rural self-built houses have occurred from time to time, and some rural self-built houses have been arbitrarily remodeled and expanded, and have changed their use at will, which has brought many safety hazards. In response to this problem, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has carried out a nationwide investigation of potential safety hazards in rural self-built houses, and issued a notice requiring all localities to strengthen the publicity work on the safety of rural self-built houses. This reporter interviewed responsible persons of relevant departments, dialogue experts, and visited grass-roots units to introduce the mainland's measures in rural self-built housing construction guidance, artisan training, and safety supervision, and to explore new ways to ensure the safety of rural self-built housing construction and use.
- Editor
"Self-construction, self-occupation, self-management", this is the main way for the peasant masses to build houses for a long time, commonly known as rural self-built houses. In recent years, some rural self-built houses have been arbitrarily remodeled and expanded, and have changed their use at will, which has brought many safety hazards.
Starting in 2020, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will take the lead in conducting a thorough investigation of potential safety hazards in all rural self-built houses within the scope of all administrative villages across the country. How about the "Farmhouse Checkup"? How to prevent safety accidents from occurring at the source? The reporter interviewed the responsible persons of relevant departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and industry experts.
Carry out security risk investigations
Covering more than 200 million houses
Year of construction, structure of the house, approval procedures, renovation... In the Department of Rural and Town Construction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the reporter saw a questionnaire for the safety hazards of rural self-built houses, and the items were classified in detail. "Since 2020, we have carried out a nationwide investigation of potential safety hazards in rural self-built houses, and the mapping work has been preliminarily completed, and an information database of 'farm house physical examination' has been established." Dong Hongmei, a first-level inspector of the Department of Rural and Town Construction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, introduced. It is understood that more than 200 million rural self-built houses in more than 500,000 administrative villages across the country.
Taking the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as an example, as of April 2021, a total of about 10 million rural houses have been inspected, and 36,500 houses with potential safety hazards have been initially judged. Among them, a total of 297,000 rural self-built houses were used for operation, and 1,029 were initially judged to have potential safety hazards.
"Through the comprehensive implementation of the transformation of dangerous houses in rural areas for poverty alleviation, all poverty-alleviated households and marginal poor groups in the country are currently living in safe housing." Now the most worrying thing is not this kind of group of people, but with the rapid development of the rural economy, new formats continue to rise, many rural self-built houses are used as restaurants, supermarkets, homestays and other business places or privately rented, these self-built houses often have no professional design, construction is not standardized, and the safety hazards are not small. Dong Hongmei said.
Zhou Tiegang, a professor at the School of Civil Engineering of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, introduced that at present, the safety hazards of rural self-built houses mainly stem from two aspects, and there are quality defects and improper use and maintenance in the later stage when the houses are built. The former includes unsafe site selection, unqualified materials, no design and technical guidance, and unprofessional construction teams; the latter is mainly to change functions at will during use, build and expand at will, resulting in overwhelmed houses. In addition, some are caused by living habits, and farmers only live and do not repair, often causing major disasters due to minor diseases.
Improve the mechanism for full supervision
Vigorously cultivate rural craftsmen
In recent years, rural self-built housing accidents have occurred from time to time, what are the difficulties behind the safety supervision? In the interview, a number of industry insiders said that the difficulties mainly include the lack of system, weak supervision, and unprofessional construction.
"Rural self-built houses apply for homesteads shall be approved by the agricultural and rural departments; how big and how tall they are built shall be reviewed by the natural resources departments." However, these information is not directly grasped by the housing department, which requires cross-departmental coordination, and it is difficult to form a regulatory synergy. Zhu Lixin, a researcher at the China Academy of Building Research, said that the lack of a system of supervision of self-built houses in rural areas needs to be filled urgently.
Dong Hongmei introduced that it is necessary to speed up the improvement of the management system and mechanism of rural engineering construction projects, and implement the main responsibility of property owners (users) for housing safety in accordance with the principle of "who owns and who is responsible"; in accordance with the principle of "who approves, who supervises", administrative examination and approval and safety supervision are effectively linked. Recently, some localities have also made more systematic provisions on the safety management of rural engineering construction projects.
"'A thousand threads above, a needle below'. Rural housing is very scattered, the management span is large, a county's construction bureau may be a few people, the strength is too weak, it is difficult to achieve the whole process of supervision. Dong Hongmei said that the next step is to continue to consolidate the foundation of local supervision, consolidate regulatory responsibilities, and strengthen regulatory forces.
In addition, in the past, rural self-built houses often helped relatives and neighbors, and there were fewer rural craftsmen who mastered professional skills, and the quality was not easy to guarantee. In recent years, local housing departments have strengthened the training of rural construction craftsmen, and more than 110,000 people have been trained in 2021 alone, of which more than 40,000 have obtained training certificates.
Dong Hongmei introduced that at present, we are actively striving to include rural construction craftsmen in the national occupational classification dictionary and implement a training qualified induction system; and rely on existing resources to establish an information platform, carry out social credit evaluation of rural construction craftsmen, and implement the "craftsman responsibility system" for rural housing construction.
Raise the safety awareness of the masses
Establish an information management platform
"It needs to be clear that it is not enough to ensure the safety of self-built houses in rural areas by relying solely on supervision, and housing construction talents are the main body of responsibility." They have to choose building materials that meet the quality requirements and look for craftsmen with technical ability. Zhu Lixin said.
"Unfavorable areas should be dealt with, steep slopes to build houses to protect the wall" "Structural columns in the four corners of the house, the wall vertical and horizontal junction" ... A few days ago, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development organized the compilation of a map of "Rural Self-built Housing Safety Knowledge", which provides safety tips in terms of site selection, housing layout, foundation foundation, wall masonry, and construction safety. Easy-to-understand, catchy popular science slogans can effectively help rural people improve their awareness of building safety.
Dong Hongmei introduced that to ensure the safety of self-built houses in rural areas, we should adhere to the combination of far and near, and treat both symptoms and root causes. Next, we must strive to eliminate the hidden dangers of existing rural housing safety, further promote the investigation and rectification of potential safety hazards, and focus on strengthening the management of rural housing used for operation, "we should adhere to the 'who approves, who is responsible', and can take housing safety as a precondition for carrying out business activities." Where self-built houses are used for operation, the property owner or user is obliged to provide a housing safety appraisal report when registering as a market entity. ”
Zhou Tiegang suggested that in areas with high earthquake intensity, flood disaster prone areas, and potential geological hazards, we should continue to promote housing reinforcement and transformation work, "In this regard, we need to increase financial support, in addition to the construction and transformation funds to give subsidies, we should also consider the cost of third-party technical services." "Where does the money come from?" It is understood that at present, some localities have made it clear that the people's governments of cities and counties (cities and districts) are responsible for the quality management of rural self-built houses in their administrative areas, and the required funds are included in the financial budgets at the same level.
Dong Hongmei introduced that next, it will guide all localities to establish an approval and supervision service platform to realize the whole process of "one network unified management" and "one network communication office" for agricultural housing land, planning, construction, and use, and finally form a national rural housing comprehensive information management platform to strictly control the hidden dangers of incremental rural housing safety. (Reporter Ding Yiting)
People's Daily (2022-01-24, 13th edition)