Successive rainstorms have plunged inland cities into waterlogging woes. Shanghai has become a city of “rain anxiety,” flooded twice within a month. Such outdated design is truly incompatible with its glamorous title as an international metropolis. Urban drainage has become a shortcoming Shanghai cannot afford to ignore. This has taught city managers who favor “vanity projects” a good lesson.

　　The drainage system is an “inner engineering” project, far less glamorous than “vanity projects,” and is often neglected or even forgotten. Yet in terms of urban functions, it is a “century project” that is indispensable. Indeed, raising urban drainage standards requires large investment and long cycles, and cannot bring much land value-added income, so local governments lack enthusiasm for it.

　　Therefore, some experts suggest starting with local legislation to give priority to ensuring the continuity and stability of this public investment. Other experts point out that the urban development concept of “valuing above-ground over underground” must be changed, and the municipal management model of “valuing construction over maintenance” must be corrected.

　　Some also propose that for old urban areas, upgrading the drainage system may benefit from “stones from other hills.” When Tokyo raised its drainage standard to “once in five years,” it also faced the difficulty of renovating old urban areas. To this end, it used underground shield tunneling technology to blaze a new trail, building giant tunnels underground to store and drain water. Kuala Lumpur likewise adopted shield tunneling technology to build a “smart tunnel” in the city center: normally the upper two layers serve as vehicle lanes and the third layer drains water; during heavy rainfall, the entire tunnel can be used to store water, raising the city's drainage capacity to “once in a century” in one stroke.

　　When will Shanghai bid farewell to “rain anxiety”?