All for the safety of the people's lives - a documentary of China's efforts to promote the standardization of disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement sites

Walking into the disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement site in Zhongfang Town, Zhongfang County, the room is spacious and comfortable, the beds are neat and orderly, and emergency supplies such as quilts, emergency flashlights, and rain gear are readily available. On the material ledger on the side, the type and quantity of emergency material reserves are also clearly registered.

"Here, the wind is not afraid of the rain, it is as warm as home. During this year's flood prevention and disaster relief, party members and cadres resolutely and quickly transferred the evacuated people to the resettlement sites, ensuring the safety of everyone's lives. Speaking of the disaster prevention and evacuation sites, the villagers gave a thumbs up and happy smiles on their faces.

Disaster prevention and mitigation is related to people's livelihood and well-being. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese county has adhered to the concept of "people first, life first", and in accordance with the principle of "scientific planning, integration of resources, combination of disaster relief and comprehensive utilization", comprehensively promoted the construction of emergency shelter and resettlement sites at the county, township and village levels, optimized and improved the function of disaster prevention and avoidance services, ensured the rapid evacuation, safe avoidance and proper resettlement of the affected people, built a solid barrier for the safety of people's lives, and further improved the county's overall defense against natural disasters and emergency response capabilities.

Scientific layout to revitalize resources

Doing a good job in the construction of disaster prevention and resettlement sites is an important measure to implement the new development concept and achieve high-quality economic and social development at the county level. To this end, the Chinese county closely followed the key links of risk avoidance and transfer, and strengthened the preliminary investigation and field exploration. In the process of site selection, focusing on normal disaster prevention and risk avoidance and extreme disaster response, fully relying on and integrating existing public resources, making extensive use of state-owned and social idle resources, planning and building 1 county-level emergency shelter and resettlement center, 3 township sub-centers, and 67 village-level resettlement points, which can accommodate more than 13,000 people affected by disasters at most.

According to the construction standards, the Chinese County Emergency Management Bureau has repeatedly discussed and improved with the departments of housing and construction, civil affairs, fire protection, etc., and formulated and issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Natural Disaster Emergency Prevention and Shelter Resettlement Sites in Chinese County", clarifying the specific construction tasks, construction content and construction standards.

For county-level disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement centers, priority should be given to schools, government agencies, enterprise plants, civil air defense projects and other public places that are safe and reliable and have certain living conditions, scientifically and rationally arranged, and a certain number of parks, squares, and open sites in safe areas should be determined as emergency standby resettlement sites.

In each township, the geographical location, natural environment, geological conditions, population size and distribution threatened by natural disasters, especially floods, and the carrying capacity of public resources are fully considered, and public places such as schools, government agencies, and pension institutions are given priority, and at least one relatively fixed centralized resettlement point for disaster prevention and avoidance is scientifically and rationally laid out and constructed. For towns and towns with large populations, scattered residences, and high risk of disaster threats, a corresponding number of disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement points will be added according to the needs of disaster prevention and risk avoidance.

It is understood that in the vicinity of all administrative village (neighborhood) committees and large-scale resettlement communities (courtyards) with more than 20 households, the Chinese county will give priority to the use of public resources such as village (neighborhood) committee activity venues, rural mutual aid and happiness homes, idle public housing, and public property rights houses in resettlement sites, and each will build at least one relatively fixed centralized resettlement site for disaster prevention and risk avoidance.

"By the end of May 2024, the construction of 1 county-level resettlement center, 3 district resettlement sub-centers and 11 scattered resettlement sites in key villages will be completed; By the end of 2024, the construction of the remaining 56 villages (communities) will be completed, so as to realize the standardization and full coverage of the county's emergency disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement sites. The Chinese county has clarified the "timetable" and "roadmap" for the construction of disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement sites.

Standardize construction and strengthen management

Walking into the disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement site in Lutingao Village, Zhongfang Town, the standardized information signs on the wall are neatly posted, and the information such as "when to transfer", "where to transfer" and "emergency contact information" is clear at a glance.

"Public information signs intuitively and efficiently convey accurate emergency information, which means that in the event of an emergency, people can follow the standardized disaster shelter signs to reach the nearest shelter in an orderly, safe and nearby manner." Yang Licheng, member of the party committee and deputy mayor of the Chinese town, said.

The Chinese county pays close attention to the three key points of construction progress, construction quality and function optimization, strictly follows the "Code for the Construction and Management of Disaster Shelter and Resettlement Sites" and related requirements, and compares the "six haves" (with places, signs, equipment, guarantees, systems, and management) standards to standardize the construction of county and rural three-level emergency shelter resettlement sites, and further optimize and improve the function of disaster prevention and risk avoidance services.

With the end of the flood season, people who have sought refuge have returned to their homes, and the disaster prevention and evacuation site in the Huaqiao area has returned to its former tranquility. "In the past, we were relocated to a simple temporary resettlement site, with only basic supplies such as bread, mineral water, and instant noodles, but now there are beds, quilts, TVs, fans, washing machines, and an infirmary, which is really thoughtful." Villagers said.

The county invested more than 190 yuan to sort out and repair 71 original idle houses, clean the site environment, repair infrastructure such as water and electricity, and improve the software and hardware facilities needed for the resettlement of the people's lives; Each resettlement site room is equipped with single beds, quilts, water dispensers, electric fans, heaters and other daily necessities to ensure that the affected people can sleep, eat, keep warm, and have clean water to drink; Each resettlement site has set up a staff office, a police office, a medical office and other supporting institutions to ensure that each evacuee can live safely and with peace of mind during the temporary resettlement period.

Management and maintenance is the key to determining whether the emergency shelter can be used to the maximum effect. In order to ensure that the "construction is successful" and "well used", and the functional and long-term role of the disaster prevention and evacuation resettlement sites is better played, the Chinese county has made in-depth explorations and continued efforts around "where to go and how to manage after the transfer", and has done a good job in the second half of the "risk avoidance and transfer".

Strengthen organizational leadership. Establish a leading group for emergency refuge and resettlement management with the Standing Committee of the county party committee and the executive deputy county magistrate as the commander, and the main persons in charge of the county's emergency, public security, health, fire and other departments and the township (town) mayor as members.

Improve the responsibility system. The county's 71 emergency shelter resettlement sites (points) have clearly led the responsible leaders, township (town) village cadres, township police stations, and medical staff of health centers, so as to clarify responsibilities and refine tasks, so as to ensure that once each resettlement site (point) is activated, "everyone is in charge" and "everything is done".

Improve rules and regulations. A series of institutional documents have been scientifically formulated, such as the Plan for the Activation of Emergency Shelter and Resettlement Sites, the Administrative Measures for the Transfer and Resettlement of Evacuees, the Detailed Rules for the Construction and Management of Emergency Shelters and Resettlement Sites, and the Management System for Emergency Shelters and Resettlement Sites, to clarify the command organization, disaster early warning, initiation mechanism, material reserves, medical security and relocation conditions, etc., to ensure that each resettlement site can be quickly activated and operated normally when a disaster occurs, so that it can be obtained and used at critical moments.

Strengthen prevention and build a strong line of defense

Take precautions and take precautions. Through a series of disaster prevention and mitigation safety publicity and safety drills, the Chinese county has comprehensively improved the awareness and skills of disaster prevention and mitigation among the whole people, guided and promoted the transformation of the people in danger from passive transfer to active transfer, and better played the role of disaster reduction in the process of disaster refuge and resettlement.

Do a good job of publicity and guidance. Make full use of the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day, Safety Production Month and other nodes to organize and carry out the "five advances" activities of disaster prevention and mitigation knowledge publicity such as "entering enterprises, rural areas, communities, campuses, and families" to strengthen warning education. In particular, the evacuation routes, evacuation sites, emergency standby evacuation routes, and self-rescue knowledge of disaster prevention and evacuation will be publicized to villages and households, and efforts will be made to improve the people's awareness of escape and risk avoidance and self-rescue and mutual rescue skills in response to various disasters, so that disaster shelters and resettlement sites can truly become "disaster" safe houses and "peacetime" mission centers.

Strengthen emergency drills. In accordance with the requirements of the "five modernizations" of "responsibility implementation grid, disaster monitoring identification, flattening of early warning system, visualization of evacuation routes, and normalization of joint prevention of hospitals and households", the drill scenario was scientifically set up, and the response and disposal of disasters such as sudden extreme rainstorms, flash floods, geological earthquakes and other disasters were taken as the top priority of the drill, and extended to cover village groups, courtyards, and key households, so as to ensure the rapid, safe and orderly evacuation of the people in danger while testing the rapid assembly and response and processing capabilities of the emergency rescue team.

Strengthen prevention and early warning. In accordance with the idea of "treating diseases before they happen", through the measures of "civil air defense + physical defense + technical defense", all-round monitoring and early warning. The management personnel of disaster prevention and resettlement sites are highly vigilant against heavy rainfall, pay close attention to rain and water conditions, and strictly do a good job in the maintenance of facilities and equipment and material reserves in accordance with the work requirements of "early deployment, early implementation, and early preparation".

"After the completion of the disaster prevention and evacuation site, it can be activated in time if there is an emergency, especially during the main flood season in June this year." The relevant person in charge of the Chinese County Emergency Management Bureau said.

Everything for the masses, for the sake of the masses at all costs. From mid-June to early July this year, the Chinese county suffered three rounds of historically rare heavy rains and floods, and the whole county, with a sense of responsibility of "always rest assured", and in strict accordance with the requirements of "should be turned around as much as possible, should be turned as soon as possible", the county transferred 2,363 people from 981 households and 1,289 households in 5 townships and towns threatened by floods in advance, and all of them were properly placed in the county and rural three-level emergency shelter resettlement sites as soon as possible, ensuring that no one, one household, or one person was missed. In addition, medical and police personnel were arranged to strengthen service guarantee and daily management, so that every evacuee and evacuee could live safely and at ease during the temporary resettlement period, and built a strong "line of defense" to protect the safety of people's lives and property with practical actions.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made a special discussion on production safety and disaster prevention and mitigation in the part of overall development and security, which is not only the great importance and expectation of the CPC Central Committee for emergency management, but also reflects the important role of emergency management in serving the goal and task of promoting Chinese-style modernization.

"There is no end to disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, only a starting point." Dun Bangjun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Chinese County Emergency Management Bureau, said that in the next step, the county will transform the study and implementation of the spirit of the plenary session into the ability and grasp to promote the work, continue to improve the disaster prevention and mitigation work mechanism, increase the standardized construction of disaster prevention and avoidance resettlement sites, further improve the management level of resettlement sites, effectively safeguard the safety of people's lives and property, and escort the high-quality economic and social development of Chinese counties with the actual results of emergency management.

(Huaihua Daily all-media reporter Qiu Cheng)