Members of a voluntary rescue team in Shanghai's Zhujiajiao town patrol its waterways on charge boats. [CHINA DAILY] Pedestrians and cyclists in a busy riverside town outside of Shanghai can move about with more peace of mind thanks to the efforts of a highly trained rescue team. For over a decade, the team's patrols have helped prevent accidents, especially along the Dianpu River in Zhujiajiao - a town with a history of more than 1,700 years in suburban Qingpu district. Members perform various tasks, including fighting fires, emergency water rescues, and flood prevention and typhoon preparedness, according to Chen Chunhao, director of the Zhujiajiao's conscription office, which oversees the team. The team has several dozen members, he said. Half are ex-military and the rest are college graduates under 25. All are unpaid but receive free training, and were selected through exams and stamina tests. The group is officially classed as a militia, which still operate nationwide under guidance from local authorities. They play a part in protecting national security and respond to emergencies that threaten social stability. However, such groups are only armed during training with the military. We undertake more diversified duties - mainly covering the propagation of national defense knowledge and performing daily guard duty along the river - in addition to our basic security work, said Li Linjie, the team leader. For example, we rescued a 22-year-old woman who attempted to drown herself in the river in September. In January, the team also cleared heavy snow from the streets and laid skid-resistant straw mats to protect vehicles and pedestrians. On an average day, Zhujiajiao receives more than 40,000 tourists keen to take in the town's history and watery vistas, and accidents sometimes occur with children and the elderly trying to negotiate the river's slippery banks. We're ready for every mission, Li said. Every member also speaks a second language, to help foreign tourists in town. According to its members, the team's track record of success is due to its disciplined military-style management. A full set of equipment is available to us, including rescue and patrol boats, inflatable rafts, motorcycles and firefighting tools, said Yuan Heqiang, another team leader. Members undergo regular military training and physical conditioning, as well as study water-rescue and firefighting techniques. We even began using drones last year to quicken our emergency response time, Yuan said. Experts from the Qingpu Lifesaving Association and the Qingpu Red Cross Association are regularly invited to teach the team the latest techniques in water rescue and first aid. The emergency response team has become a key guardian of peace and security in Zhujiajiao, said Colonel Li Huilin of the Qingpu district's conscription office. Over the past 11 years, the unit has coped with more than 30 major disasters and 500 crises, helping prevent property losses of more than 8 million yuan ($1.21 million), especially before and during weather emergencies. [email protected]paper wristbands ukcustom silicone bandsflash drive wristbandwrist band com coupon codemotivational bracelets for athletestrio spinners
Two-year, high-level inspections saw companies fined 1.43b yuanThe biggest environmental inspection ever in China - covering 31 provincial regions over two years - led to 18,199 government officials being punished for their failure to control pollution, it was announced on Thursday.The central government inspectors exposed 135,000 cases, many featuring common problems such as weak enforcement of regulations to improve air and water quality, said Liu Changgen, deputy director of the National Environmental Inspection Office."The inspections motivated local governments to show their full strength in combating pollution, with tough penalties meted out to the vast number of officials who failed in their duties," he said.About 29,000 companies were also fined a combined 1.43 billion yuan ($218 million) for failing to meet standards to reduce pollution, while 1,527 people were detained for potential criminal activity.Over a series of monthlong inspections, the Ministry of Environmental Protection found some local governments had "performed poorly by showing negligence, inaction and a refusal to implement controls", said Liu, whose office is part of the ministry.The No 1 problem was the severe air and water pollution that had occurred in some places because local authorities had not taken effective environmental measures, leading to public concern.For example, in Sichuan province's Zigong, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air increased by 32.5 percent in the first half of 2017, while quality tests showed only 11.1 percent of the city's water was above the national standard in 2016, compared with 50 percent in 2013, the inspection team reported to the provincial government.Nationally, inspectors found a lack of facilities to process the daily waste from urban regions, with 12 million metric tons of untreated sewage discharged directly into waterways, Liu said on Thursday.In response, cities have accelerated construction of treatment facilities, such as Guangdong province's Shenzhen, which has started to expand its sewage network by 2,000 kilometers.Inspection teams also discovered illegal and excessive exploitation of mines, water resources and wetlands, including in Hainan and Shandong provinces, which showed that decision-makers had not been paying close attention, Liu said."Next year, our teams will revisit these provinces to check whether the problems have been solved," he added. "Inspections in each place lasted for only a month, but the message they sent to officials - to protect and improve the environment - should last a long time."[email protected]
