China says needs 3 million tents for quake homeless
By Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby
BEIJING/CHENGDU, May 20 (Reuters) - China needs up to 3 million tents to house the estimated 5 million people left homeless by an earthquake that struck on May 12, and is having a hard job finding the equipment, officials said on Tuesday.
Rebuilding will only start once everyone is housed, either in tents, with family or relatives, or in public buildings, said Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Jiang Li, and that could take a long time.
"As this was a huge earthquake that struck suddenly, caused huge casualties and tens of thousands of buildings to collapse, and considering the damage to roads and other facilities, there are still enormous difficulties for and pressure on survivors," she told a news conference.
"The next step will be to proactively consider the issue of reconstruction," she added, but gave no timetable. "This will need a long-term plan."
In Chengdu, capital of the hardest hit province, Sichuan, vice provincial governor Li Chengyun appealed for more tents.
"We're really short of tents. So we hope that other provinces that want to help us and other countries can donate them," he told reporters.
The disaster-hit areas, mainly in Sichuan, have already received 280,000 tents, and factories are working around the clock to deliver another 700,000, Jiang said.
The country may even temporarily ban tent exports, added Pang Chenmin, the ministry's deputy relief work chief.
But Sanrenmuguin, an ethnic Tibetan official with Sichuan's civil affairs bureau, said providing tents was just a temporary solution.
"Tents are one way to solve our housing problem. But over time they will be less and less suitable to people's needs. We are concerned, really, really concerned, about this problem," he added.
ORPHANS
With the quake having killed some 40,000 people at latest count, the authorities must also cope with bodies which cannot be identified, and with orphans, old people and the disabled who have lost caregivers.
Every homeless person will be given a 10 yuan ($1.44) daily subsidy, and orphans and the elderly or disabled who have nobody else to look after them will each receive 600 yuan a month, Jiang said.
More than 70 orphans have been identified to date, but only when the government is sure of their identities and that they have no relatives will they be put up for adoption.
"We will treat these adoptions as the most pressing matter," said Li Bo, deputy chief of the ministry's social affairs department.
A DNA database will be established to assist identification of unidentified dead bodies, added Jiang.
The calamity has prompted a huge outpouring of public sympathy both at home and abroad, with 13.9 billion yuan raised to date.
But with corruption a big problem in China, officials were keen to stress they would keep a close watch on the money to see none of it is misused.
"Our mission is to ensure that we strengthen oversight over disaster relief funds," Jiang said. ($1=6.970 Yuan) (Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Roger Crabb) (For more stories on China's quake, click on [ID:nSP209165] or follow the link to Reuters AlertNet www.alertnet.org. For full coverage of the quake in China, click on www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/china))
BEIJING/CHENGDU, May 20 (Reuters) - China needs up to 3 million tents to house the estimated 5 million people left homeless by an earthquake that struck on May 12, and is having a hard job finding the equipment, officials said on Tuesday.
Rebuilding will only start once everyone is housed, either in tents, with family or relatives, or in public buildings, said Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Jiang Li, and that could take a long time.
"As this was a huge earthquake that struck suddenly, caused huge casualties and tens of thousands of buildings to collapse, and considering the damage to roads and other facilities, there are still enormous difficulties for and pressure on survivors," she told a news conference.
"The next step will be to proactively consider the issue of reconstruction," she added, but gave no timetable. "This will need a long-term plan."
In Chengdu, capital of the hardest hit province, Sichuan, vice provincial governor Li Chengyun appealed for more tents.
"We're really short of tents. So we hope that other provinces that want to help us and other countries can donate them," he told reporters.
The disaster-hit areas, mainly in Sichuan, have already received 280,000 tents, and factories are working around the clock to deliver another 700,000, Jiang said.
The country may even temporarily ban tent exports, added Pang Chenmin, the ministry's deputy relief work chief.
But Sanrenmuguin, an ethnic Tibetan official with Sichuan's civil affairs bureau, said providing tents was just a temporary solution.
"Tents are one way to solve our housing problem. But over time they will be less and less suitable to people's needs. We are concerned, really, really concerned, about this problem," he added.
ORPHANS
With the quake having killed some 40,000 people at latest count, the authorities must also cope with bodies which cannot be identified, and with orphans, old people and the disabled who have lost caregivers.
Every homeless person will be given a 10 yuan ($1.44) daily subsidy, and orphans and the elderly or disabled who have nobody else to look after them will each receive 600 yuan a month, Jiang said.
More than 70 orphans have been identified to date, but only when the government is sure of their identities and that they have no relatives will they be put up for adoption.
"We will treat these adoptions as the most pressing matter," said Li Bo, deputy chief of the ministry's social affairs department.
A DNA database will be established to assist identification of unidentified dead bodies, added Jiang.
The calamity has prompted a huge outpouring of public sympathy both at home and abroad, with 13.9 billion yuan raised to date.
But with corruption a big problem in China, officials were keen to stress they would keep a close watch on the money to see none of it is misused.
"Our mission is to ensure that we strengthen oversight over disaster relief funds," Jiang said. ($1=6.970 Yuan) (Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Roger Crabb) (For more stories on China's quake, click on [ID:nSP209165] or follow the link to Reuters AlertNet www.alertnet.org. For full coverage of the quake in China, click on www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/china))
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