Shenzhen to spend 15 billion yuan on ensuring safety of construction waste after landslide that killed 70

Shenzhen plans to spend 15 billion yuan (HK$17.77 billion) this year ensuring the safety of building sites and dumping grounds, following the deaths last year of 70 people killed by the collapse of a mountain of construction waste.

Various campaigns would be launched to identify and remove potential hazards at building sites, landfills, soil slopes and grounds holding construction waste and hazardous materials, the city’s Mayor Xu Qin said at the legislature’s annual meeting on Sunday.

Xu stressed the importance of learning from the fatal landslide in late December, saying the government would ensure “the strictest standards”, “the most compact system” and hold officials accountable for public safety management.

In addition to the deaths, the landslide in December destroyed 33 buildings in the Hengtaiyu industrial zone.

READ MORE: Shenzhen landslide: How China creates more waste than its dump sites can handle

Xiong Yang, from the NGO Green River, said many of Shenzhen’s recent disasters were largely the result of overly aggressive urbanisation, in which development was driven by profit, but lacked adequate supervision and long-range planning.