The safety hazards of farmhouse in the north foot of Qinling Mountains in Xi'an need to be rectified

Glory Xi'an

On August 3, 2015, a rainstorm took the lives of 12 tourists from Xiaoyuhe Village, Wangmang Street, Chang'an District, Xi'an City. The sudden tragedy exposed the potential safety hazards brought by the rapid growth of farmhouse in the north foot of Qinling Mountains. Nearly four years later, the reporter found in the investigation that many farmhouses at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in Xi'an still have poor infrastructure, illegal construction, backward management and other problems, which seriously restrict the development of rural tourism in our city and lay a "time bomb" for rural revitalization.
Tragedy exposes potential safety hazards
Xiaoyuhe Village, Wangmang Street, Chang'an District, Xi'an City, is located at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. With beautiful mountains and flowing water, dozens of farmhouses are located on both sides of the Xiaoyuhe River, which stretches for miles. It is a popular choice for many Xi'an citizens to enjoy summer vacation and rural life. In the afternoon of August 3, 2015, tourists were playing on both sides of Xiaoyu River as usual. At about 4:50 pm, the heavy rain suddenly hit. The flood accompanied by the debris flow instantly overturned the roof of the house near the river. Nine tourists were involved in the flood and disappeared. After 46 hours of search and rescue, at 3:40 p.m. on August 5, the bodies of the last two missing people in the flood disaster of Xiaoyu Mountain in Xi'an were found, and all nine tourists were confirmed dead.
"A good home was destroyed like this... My brother was 74 years old that year, which was unexpected. The government must strengthen the management of the farmhouse in the scenic area, and must have very effective measures." A family member of the victims of the Xiaoyu Mountain Flood said that eight members of his eldest brother's family were killed in the accident, including the 74 year old husband and wife, three members of his eldest son's family The second son's daughter-in-law and two children. On the same day of the incident, Lantian County was hit by heavy rainfall, which triggered flash floods, killing three people and leaving two missing. Reporters found that almost the whole river channel was occupied by sunshades when they interviewed the flood disaster site in Xiaoyushan on the 7th, and it was hard to see the true nature of the river channel.
The infrastructure is poor and homogeneous, lacking characteristics
After the Xiaoyu mountain torrent disaster accident, our city issued the Implementation Opinions of Xi'an on Strengthening the Safety Management of Outdoor Field Tourism Activities (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), and banned and removed all illegal facilities located in the areas prone to mountain torrent geological disasters and within the scope of river management, as well as the farmhouses occupying the river.
Although our city has made some achievements in rural tourism, a recent reporter survey found that many farmhouses along the Qinling Mountains still have serious homogenization, illegal construction, backward management and other problems, especially in the "public toilets", "garbage", "drinking water" and other infrastructure has not been fundamentally changed, and there are potential safety hazards of environmental pollution.
On April 7, the reporter entered the national highway from Fengyukou, and many farmhouses, leisure villas and restaurants were located along the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains. Since there was no municipal water supply and drainage along the line, farmhouses could only draw water from their own wells, or use untreated surface water on the mountain, and still use traditional dry toilets. In addition, a large amount of domestic garbage is produced every day in the farmhouse, and the capacity of garbage bins provided for the reception households in villages and towns is far from enough to accommodate daily domestic garbage, and some garbage will be dumped in remote places or rivers. From the perspective of business conditions, many farmhouses still stay in the aspects of food and housing, and tourism and entertainment also often stay in simple projects such as playing cards and fishing. The stereotyped form of tourism has become the biggest "hard wound" of farmhouses.
Previously, the tourism department of Xi'an City had investigated the drinking water situation of more than 100 farmhouses in Xi'an. Tap water accounted for 51.7%, mountain spring water, self owned wells and other drinking water accounted for 48.3%, and nearly 50% of the rooms were not equipped with toilets. This situation has led to certain potential safety hazards in ensuring the food safety of tourists and preventing infectious diseases. In general, Agritainment is still a primary market that has not been standardized and has lagged behind in management.
Agritainment Needs Unified Planning
The reporter found in the survey that the farmhouse in our city is still at a low level of independent development stage, lacking advanced and modern management concepts, unified and effective management system, rural tourism is often fragmented, scattered, small, chaotic and weak phenomenon is common, and the degree and level of industrialization is generally low. In addition, there is generally a business situation of busy noon and quiet evening, busy spring and summer, busy autumn and cold winter. After October every year, when the tourism season is off, few people visit Agritainment. The average annual operation time is 8 months, and the peak season is only about 5 months, which seriously restricts the development of rural tourism.
"Across the country, rural tourism in many places is developing in disorder." Zhang Yan, director of the Cultural Tourism Research Center of Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, believes that many farmhouses lack planning and construction is arbitrary. In addition, urban tourists often lack the knowledge of disaster reduction and prevention in rural areas, which increases the security risks of rural tourism to some extent.
Zhang Yan suggested that rural tourism should be planned as a functional area, and excessive activities should be avoided in disaster prone areas. At the same time, improve the early warning mechanism, strengthen the safety publicity and education for tourists and the training for rural household operators. "I think it is also necessary to support agritainment to form large-scale group operation, form a rural tourism development model with local characteristics, and bring it under the unified supervision of the government, so as to truly prevent problems before they occur," said Zhang Yan.
Reporter Yang Ming
This article was originally published on the Terracotta Warriors Online (www.wmxa.cn). Please keep this link for reprinting. Thank you!