Quake survivors still living in tents
By Staff Reporter |
January 16, 2011, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SICHUAN earthquake survivors in a county in northwestern China are still living in tents and jerry-built homes, while some 100 million yuan (US$15.16 million) in relief funds allocated to the local government is being withheld.
Cracked walls and broken beams - this is not a description of houses ravaged in the 2008 disaster, but new homes built for quake victims in villages in Wenxian County, Gansu Province.
Gansu borders Sichuan Province, the epicenter of the May 12, 2008, quake that killed about 70,000 people and left nearly 20,000 others missing in Sichuan and neighboring areas. More than 360 people were reported killed in Gansu.
Wenxian was the hardest-hit area in Gansu with 78 percent of its buildings destroyed or seriously damaged.
Villagers in the county's Renjiaba Village say they fear the rebuilt houses will be easily destroyed in the event of another earthquake, Beijing-based Economic Information reported.
One villager, Han Shifeng, said there had been no bidding process for the construction project and workers had been hired by the local government.
An assessment report by experts from the provincial construction engineering research institute had deemed the buildings unfit to live in, the newspaper said.
As compensation, the construction firm signed an agreement saying it would pay 30,000 yuan (US$4,533) to each household. After the payment, the agreement states, the company could not be held liable for any further problems. No one has received the payment yet.
Cracked walls and broken beams - this is not a description of houses ravaged in the 2008 disaster, but new homes built for quake victims in villages in Wenxian County, Gansu Province.
Gansu borders Sichuan Province, the epicenter of the May 12, 2008, quake that killed about 70,000 people and left nearly 20,000 others missing in Sichuan and neighboring areas. More than 360 people were reported killed in Gansu.
Wenxian was the hardest-hit area in Gansu with 78 percent of its buildings destroyed or seriously damaged.
Villagers in the county's Renjiaba Village say they fear the rebuilt houses will be easily destroyed in the event of another earthquake, Beijing-based Economic Information reported.
One villager, Han Shifeng, said there had been no bidding process for the construction project and workers had been hired by the local government.
An assessment report by experts from the provincial construction engineering research institute had deemed the buildings unfit to live in, the newspaper said.
As compensation, the construction firm signed an agreement saying it would pay 30,000 yuan (US$4,533) to each household. After the payment, the agreement states, the company could not be held liable for any further problems. No one has received the payment yet.
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