Major challenges facing resettlement tasks
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Efforts to rebuild remote and mountainous Yushu after the deadly April 14 earthquake should fit local disaster-prone conditions so as to avoid wasting money and resources, experts warned Monday.
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Tents for some 30,000 quake-affected residents are erected as makeshift shelters at a race course in Yushu, Qinghai Province, Monday. [Xinhua] |
Meanwhile, a senior official urged that sufficient funding was vital to reconstruction, as chal-lenges such as limited transportation routes and fragile power supplies persisted.
As the death toll from the 7.1-magnitude earthquake, which almost flattened Yushu Prefecture in Qinghai Province, reached 2,220 Sunday, with 70 people still missing, officials vowed an "organized and scientific" arrangement for some 200,000 quake-stricken residents.
Zhang Guangrong, vice governor of Qinghai, said Monday that severe climatic conditions, the high cost of construction materials, and weak transportation capacity made it difficult for the provincial government to carry out reconstruction and resettlement.
The remote area has only two national highways. Thin air and freezing temperatures due to the altitude are also blamed for impeding rescue efforts.
"Furthermore, winter in Yushu lasts about 8 months a year, which means we have limited construction time. Take three years for example, that's still only 14 to 15 months that are suitable for construction work," Zhang said.
Funding would be the key to easing challenges, Zhang, who flew to the quake-devastated area April 15, said at a news conference Monday in Beijing.
But he could not specify how much funding the quake-hit area needs, as the losses incurred by the quake are still being assessed.
"As of 5 pm Sunday, we have received donations totaling 3.5 billion yuan in cash, plus relief materials valued at 4 billion yuan," Zhang told reporters.
Donations from around the world are still streaming in, and the central government has arranged a 500-million-yuan (US$73 million) emergency fund for disaster relief work as well.
"The government will publish how much money will be needed for the reconstruction after the disaster assessment survey is completed in the near future," Zhang said.
Strengthened supervision of the relief fund and materials in Yushu has been called for to prevent dereliction of duty and embezzlement after media reported that the national audit office detected 300 million yuan in aid money was misused after the Wenchuan quake in May 2008.
