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Why China’s Buildings Crumbled
By Paul Midler | May 16, 2008
The Globe and Mail suggests that corruption explains why ‘tofu buildings’ crumbled in China:
“One man, gazing at the corpse of his nine-year-old cousin, said he had disturbing evidence that could explain the collapse of the five-storey Juyuan school building, along with eight other schools in the region. The man, who gave his surname as Ren, is a 32-year-old steel worker who has worked for a decade in the local construction industry. He said he always knew that the Juyuan school was a disaster in waiting. Local officials…had pocketed money that was budgeted for the school, while a private construction company had saved money by cutting corners on the project.”
Call it corner cutting, or what you will, the phenomenon is a familiar one:
“To boost its profits, the company used iron instead of steel in many parts of the construction of the building… It cut back on the size and number of steel braces in the cement foundation slabs. And it used cheap materials to make the concrete walls, weakening the entire structure.”
Interesting article.
Topics: China |
May 17th, 2008 at 4:59 am
An article I just translated says the scientist were taken by surprise: http://www.chinaherald.net/2008/05/sichuan-was-not-known-as-risk-area-nrc.html
May 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Classic! And there is, and will be, more. Like this:
“We have seen magnificent government buildings in poor cities where disasters frequently hit; we have seen officials in luxury cars though working in one of the most impoverished county. This time around, we saw elegant government buildings remain intact while dozens of schools crumbled like sand houses.”
http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens//Observer/2008/05/15/99788.html
Building codes in quake-prone areas rear their ugly heads here. There was a wakeup call, Tangshan, and some promises were made. 30+ years down the road, what has changed? Sure, money does not grow on the trees, but there are ways to make costs bearable, even in private housing sector. For starters, just think of all that lovely money that ends up in pockets of CCP cadres and their mates! What could it pay for, in rightful hands?
But there is worse: The public facilities like schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, etc. The aggravating BS I find on the forums and in comments is the usual: “too expensive” (we are a developing country cant), or “you cannot build a totally quake proof structure”.
Allright. When you are strapped for cash, you set your acceptable earthquake risk levels selectively: How many lives at stake (a school, a hospital, a dam above the town). How essential if the sh*t hits the fan (power, roads for access). Town planning (strategically placed open areas for evacuation, doubling as parks, etc.). Cut corners where the risks are lower (sad, but a fact of life).
Also: The quake resistant means just that! Not that the building won’t go down, there’s no way to guarantee such thing. But if it takes long enough to fold, for people to evacuate, good job! Or if it disintegrates in a way that increases the probability of survival for those trapped inside.
BTW, read this, too: http://tinyurl.com/5u33kb
Sorry about the long rant, but seeing lives wasted like this gives me s*its, and my mood’s not made any better by fools singing “how their leaders care for them” and crowing about “openness in media” and such. There will be some big talk, some scapegoats will get nabbed. Then, business as usual.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
The Telegraph has run a piece on tofu buildings also…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1969382/China-earthquake-Building-work-blamed-for-child-death-toll.html
May 18th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Fons Tuinstra, thanks for the link. Goes to show we all must be ready to change our POV, always.
No, none of us got all the answers, but we still have to ask the questions. My concern is that the people who bore the brunt of this tragedy are not prevented from doing so, again.
May 18th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Good one Neddy and entirely justified.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I am usually loathe to draw relativistic comparisons, but I believe the US had similarly scandalous breaches in its quality control at the turn of the 20th century.
I will also say, however, that it was only with a free and vibrant democratic government that the problem was effecitvely addressed. And that is something the PRC sorely lacks–and the one thing that may be hardest to graft onto their current political system
May 25th, 2008 at 4:46 am
You can’t beat the Chinese when it comes to cutting corners to save some money. The earthquake was a sad tragedy. The builders who built those schools that collapsed should be punished and jailed. Their permits to build should also be taken away. Sad to see so many children die due to builders that cut corners to make a few bucks and save a few pennies.