WAIHUAN Tunnel which opened to traffic last weekend is the first major roadwork in China to include anti-terrorism in its emergency procedures.

　　Anti-terrorism measures can be activated in the 2,882.8-metre-long tunnel - the world's second-largest - within one minute of any attack.

　　"It is not making a mountain out of a molehill because no place in the world can be said to be completely safe," said Li Wenyi, a professor of Tongji University who specializes in disaster prevention and relief.

　　Terrorism is not the only potentially disastrous event worrying the authorities today. Other potential disasters that were considered recently by academics from key universities for the Shanghai City Disaster Administrative System included: earthquakes, typhoons, power failures, tornadoes, thick fog, earth subsidence, major fires, chemical spills and infrastructure collapse.

　　China has been peaceful for dozens of years, so people are used to the steadiness of daily life and less aware of disaster,'' said Li, who is also deputy director of the Shanghai Institute for Disaster Prevention and Relief. "But there is an old saying: 'One can never know when to expect disaster'. Safety is always a key issue for everyone."

　　Professor Li also pointed out that Shanghai was no stranger to natural disasters.

　　Flood and typhoon

　　Located near the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai has suffered disasters in the past which have come from both the ocean and the river.

　　The summer of 1998 - a year of serious flooding along the Yangtze River - was unforgettable. Shanghai was able to survive that emergency, Li said, although the flood-water level came to within 24 centimetres of the top of the anti-flood wall on the Bund.

　　"If the flood-water had risen a little higher, the result would have been unimaginable. Not only would the Bund have been under water but People's Square in the centre of the city would also remain flooded," he said.

　　Li said typhoons had not come ashore in Shanghai for some years. Recent typhoons have lashed neighbouring Zhejiang Province but have not affected Shanghai severely. However, if a typhoon struck the city directly, emergency services would be hard-pressed.

　　Earthquakes also worried the expert although the city is not located in a very active earthquake zone.

　　"But Tangshan in North China's Hebei Province and Kobe in Japan, which was seriously hit by earthquakes respectively in 1976 and 1995, were also not thought to be in active earthquake belts so no one can tell definitely when and where an earthquake will come," Li said.

　　Analysts say that almost half the buildings in Shanghai are of inferior anti-earthquake design and construction. "In a way, we can say they haven't any such earthquake-proof function at all," Li said.

　　"Another factor is recovery. Earthquakes of the same intensity were measured in Japan and in Algeria but the results were totally different. The former recovered quickly but the latter suffered seriously for longer."

　　Yang Shaogang, a senior lawyer and a consultant to the city government agreed: "Japan's measures against earthquake are so good. Everyone knows where the shelter is and how to protect themselves correctly. Exercises are practiced frequently.

　　"But in Shanghai, who knows where to find shelter if an earthquake happened?"

　　Industrial accidents

　　The city's huge population and high-density construction also leads to worries among experts about the potential for man-made disasters.

　　"Along with the benefits brought by technological developments, come some bad effects as well," Yang said. "It is unavoidable."

　　Yang said he worried a lot about industrial accidents. "I can never forget one case involving a chlorine leak," he said

　　Poison gas

　　On June 4, 1996, poisonous chlorine gas from the Shanghai Tianyuan Chemical Plant escaped and more than 1,000 nearby residents were affected. "I saw many people who had run away so fast they lost their shoes. Hospitals had to accommodate many victims. It was so bad that the leaves fell off the trees as if it was autumn."

　　After the intervention of a senior government official, the plant was forced to move. Yang said residential housing should be forbidden near chemical plants. "At that time, there weren't any measures in force and I don't know if the situation has improved nowadays."

　　Shanghai in 2001 had more than 15,000 enterprises using chemicals in their operations, according to statistics. The annual tonnage of chemicals being transported was 16 million tons. "One can't be too careful," Yang said.

　　Other experts are more worried about the erection of more and more skyscrapers.

　　"A super high tower which can accommodate 100,000 people is really a challenge to the management of the city's safety, services and traffic," said Zheng Shiling,director of the Institute of Architecture and Urban Space at Tongji University.

　　Every year, Shanghai is affected to some degree by at least 10 typhoons which can have a large impact on high buildings. In addition, fire-fighting hoses can only reach 50 metres high so, for those living higher, their situation in a fire is dangerous.

　　Buildings more than 24 metres high can be described as high buildings. There are over 3,000 such high buildings in the city with 186 of them being super high towers, more than 100 metres high.

　　"Shanghai has placed some restrictions on high buildings. It is not bad to build several super high towers in this international city, but I think in some places, the density of high rises is not reasonable and should be restrained," said Zheng.

　　Counter measures

　　Li said: "Actually, the Shanghai government has realized the potential danger and is paying close attention to it."

　　In May 2001, the Shanghai government released emergency procedures covering 25 disaster scenarios. "Shanghai took the lead to initiate these kinds of emergency drills," Li said.

　　But not enough has been done, say the experts.

　　"To me, the administrative system is not perfect - there is no one headquarters to control a situation," Li said. "The same problem also exists in the country. When a disaster happens, several departments are in charge of it which may lead to confusion."

　　For example, three departments could be responsible if an earthquake struck including the Earthquake Bureau, Civil Defence Administration and Anti-earthquake Office. But they belong to different high-level departments, so it would be hard for them to co-ordinate their responses and, naturally overlapping functions would result.

　　Yang said two years ago he had advocated an overhaul of the regulations for dealing with disasters to the government but had heard no answer.

　　SARS outbreak

　　"The law-making should occur in advance. We can't wait for a disaster to happen, then make a law or regulation," Yang said.

　　The SARS outbreak was a good example. The Protection Law Against Infectious Disease was formulated in 1989 and had not been overhauled. The spread of SARS earlier this year had exposed how outdated the law had become as it was unable to deal with the situation.

　　"Every time there is an urgent occurrence, people take some temporary measures and when it ends, all the measures are abandoned. It is wrong," Yang said.

　　"I think China should have a law to provide for the regular examination of defensive measures in place for when a disaster comes."