(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-02 07:42

With Premier Wen Jiabao visiting the disaster zones in the south, and President Hu Jintao giving on-the-site instructions on coal supply, the national leadership is making all-out efforts to handle one of the toughest tests it is facing.

For our understanding public, TV footage of Premier Wen giving consoling speeches to besieged passengers, and President Hu in a miner's uniform and hat in a pit 400 m underground inspecting coal production, will certainly deliver an inspirational message.

In a nation that accentuates personal examples, tangible personal involvement of national leaders guarantees an extraordinary mobilizing effect.

A more substantial move that enhances our confidence in our ultimate triumph over the devastating blizzards and freezing rains is the establishment of the cross-department coordination mechanism.

With this in place, we have seen relief work that had been carried out mainly along department lines, now integrated into one concerted network. This is exactly what the disaster situation calls for.

As has been obvious in the past weeks, no single department can single-handedly handle it.

The most imperative task still is to thin the crowds of holiday travelers at major congestion points. The heaviest burden falls first on the shoulders of the rail transport authorities. And the pressure is multi-dimensional.

To ease the universal worries of travelers eager to get home for the all important Lunar New Year's Eve reunion with their families, they have less than five days left to safely send hundreds of millions home. At the same time, they will have to ensure timely delivery of coal to the starving coal-based power plants. Coal stocks at major power plants in the disaster regions have dropped to dangerously low levels. There also is the need for emergency repairs to damaged power grids.

Beyond all that is the routine but equally demanding job of supplying essential goods for the Spring Festival holidays. The unexpected disaster has already hit some important areas of vegetable production, sufficient and timely transport of such commodities is indispensable for preventing major price hikes in basic necessities, which the national leadership has pledged to avoid. A more emergent need is to make sure people in the disaster areas, who have already suffered from a short supply of power, water and even food, do not have to wait for too long in these rarely-seen chilly days.

The job is getting more difficult in the days before Lunar New Year's Eve. Meteorological departments have issued warnings of fresh blizzards and freezing rain in parts of the disaster areas. And the highest tide of holidaymakers will occur in the next few days.

The peak demand for transport requires considerable sophistication in planning and dispatching on the railway departments' part. But an ultimate solution is far beyond their reach. This is where the multi-department coordination framework can help.

We need exceptional brainwork to overcome the current situation.

(China Daily 02/02/2008 page4)