On the morning of April 30, 2024, Wuhan City’s mobile drainage capacity improvement project officially started construction. This milestone event marked the birth of the first national emergency drainage base in central China. This project will provide vital emergency drainage and rescue services for Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and other surrounding areas, and is of great significance for improving the flood control and drainage capabilities of the entire region.

With the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events, urban drainage has become the key to ensuring urban safety and residents' quality of life. Wuhan, as a water-rich city, has always attached great importance to flood prevention and drainage. In order to make up for the shortcomings of emergency drainage and improve the level of urban emergency management, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development held a special meeting in Wuhan and clearly instructed Wuhan City to strengthen the construction of emergency drainage and flood prevention capabilities to build a national-level urban drainage emergency center.

The Wuhan Mobile Flood Drainage Capacity Improvement Project not only demonstrates a high degree of systematization and automation, but also has the ability to respond quickly and efficiently. Once a rescue order is received, the project can quickly complete disaster assessment, plan formulation, and personnel and equipment assembly preparations to ensure that it reaches the disaster area and launches rescue work in a short time. The completion of this project will greatly enhance Wuhan's resilience and ability to respond to natural disasters.

In terms of hardware, the project is equipped with various advanced mobile drainage equipment with an emergency drainage capacity of 400,000 cubic meters per hour, including mobile drainage rescue vehicles, sub-type mobile drainage rescue vehicles, high-wading pump trucks, etc. At the same time, the project will also renovate drainage pumping station sites such as Houhu Lake and Tangxun Lake as equipment parking areas to achieve both emergency and emergency use of drainage equipment.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of October this year. By then, Wuhan City will have formed a complete urban drainage and flood prevention engineering system that includes source emission reduction, pipe network discharge, simultaneous storage and discharge, and emergency response when standards exceed standards, significantly improving drainage and flood prevention capabilities. In the event of extreme rainfall, the project will ensure that key parts of urban traffic arteries are drained of accumulated water within a specified time, effectively ensuring the normal operation of urban infrastructure and the safety of residents' lives and property. At the same time, when extreme rainfall disasters occur in surrounding cities, Wuhan City will also be able to quickly provide drainage rescue support and jointly respond to the challenges of natural disasters.Editor/Cheng Liting