China's quake region struggling, one year on

Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 4:16 AM Posted by Beijing News


A year after the Sichuan earthquake devastated huge swathes of southwest China, life is slowly returning to normal, but concerns over corruption continue to overshadow the reconstruction effort.

As survivors mark Tuesday's first anniversary of the disaster, in which 87,000 people were killed or left missing, officials are struggling to provide for the uprooted and the unemployed, and social unrest is simmering.

"The central government policies have been great. They have done a lot for everyone," said Zhang Yongfang, 48, a restaurant worker in Dujiangyan, a city where entire streets were flattened.

But it is the local officials that residents accuse of corruption and embezzling relief funds that have been streaming into the disaster zone since the May 12 tragedy, the worst natural disaster to hit the nation in 30 years.

"It's just the lower-level officials who are no good," said Zhang.

Large protests erupted in the weeks after the disaster over the thousands of teachers and students who were killed when their schools collapsed, with many blaming corrupt building practices for the death toll being so high.

The energy released at the epicenter of the 8.0-magintude quake was equivalent to 400 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, according to some estimates, and a mountainous region the size of South Korea was affected.

The consequences are likely to be felt for years to come. Some 1.5 million homes have yet to be completely rebuilt, and 200,000 people made jobless by the disaster are still unable to find employment, according to government data.

Then there are the emotional scars.

"Everyone here has felt the tragedy. We've seen a lot of friends and family killed," said Zhang.

She was quick to praise the government's response in the hours and days after the quake, including soldiers sent to dig survivors out of collapsed buildings and deliver badly needed aid and supplies.

"This was a natural disaster, and there is not a lot you can do in such a situation other than make the best of it," the tall and gaunt Zhang said outside of her dumpling shop near a condemned building waiting to be torn down.

The government, which so far has invested over 360 billion yuan 53 billion dollars in reconstruction programmes, is also footing the bill for vulnerable groups including the elderly, handicapped and orphaned children.

"Basic importance should be attached to the livelihood of the people, expediting reconstruction of livelihood projects should be regarded as the top priority," provincial spokesman Yu Wei told journalists.

"The satisfaction of and recognition by the people should be regarded as the criterion to judge the progress and quality of the reconstruction task."

The shock of the devastation, a few months ahead of the Beijing Olympics, galvanised the entire nation. The government reacted quickly while donations poured in from all parts of China and the world.

Chinese citizens went to the quake zone spontaneously, in what some saw as a powerful sign of the growing power of civil society in the world?s most populous country.

"The government wants to put an end to this issue," he said, before local officials arrived and ordered AFP journalists to leave the village.





Kambayashi

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