OPINION> Commentary
Challenges hereafter
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-20 07:28

Many of us might not have adequately realized the clear and present dangers facing us, when President Hu Jintao said, upon his arrival at the quake-hit regions, that the most challenging moment in relief work has come around.

But it indeed has come, placing on our shoulders multiple burdens none of which allows any delay.

Though the internationally recognized 72 "golden hours" for post-quake rescue had passed days ago, there is no sign rescue workers giving up.

The search for survivors goes on not just because the national leadership vows to have every site of collapse scouted and every survivor rescued. That a woman in her 50s was dug out alive after being buried deep in the ruins for more than 160 hours gives us confidence there may be others awaiting rescue. There is no reason to give up until each and every possibility is exhausted.

But the task has clearly got more complex than it was. Though all townships and county seats have seen relief workers and different degrees of emergency logistical supply, there are a larger number of villages and scattered, and usually harder to reach, settlements which have yet to be covered by rescue endeavors.

Besides those waiting under the rubble to be rescued and those still in anguish in hard-to-reach communities, there are hundreds of thousands transferred survivors wanting proper care.

Not that the authorities or rescue workers have not done a good job. But the task of simultaneously handling emergencies on multiple fronts is too daunting.

And the difficulties are not limited to logistics. Epidemic control has emerged as an outstanding imperative as time goes by. Although medical authorities have ruled out the likelihood of major epidemic conditions following the diagnosis of cases of gas gangrene, they are warning signs worth the highest alert.

It is a sensible choice to dispatch the seriously wounded from Chengdu and Sichuan province, where local medical resources have been stretched beyond capacity, to neighboring areas. For the moment, it may prove to be the best way to have them treated properly and expeditiously.

With pressures on local medical workers for emergency medical assistance ebbing, additional resources must be put into epidemic control. Every effort must be made to improve sanitary conditions at the temporary homes of resettled survivors.

And there are the barrier lakes formed in the wake of the devastating earthquake. Continuous rainfall adds to the threat they pose to those living downstream.

With the entire nation ready to give all kinds of support, the supply of either material or manpower should not be a problem. The real test for the local authorities, therefore, lies in coordination.

(China Daily 05/20/2008 page10)