Rescue & Aid
Reconstruction faces challenge
By WANG QIAN (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-27 07:28
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BEIJING - Reconstruction of earthquake-ravaged Yushu county in Northwest China's Qinghai province faces major challenges due to its unique geographic conditions, a senior official said on Monday.
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Limited construction time due to extreme weather, a feature of the area's latitude and altitude;
Inadequate transportation capacity;
High construction costs caused by the need to protect the local environment; and
Unstable power supplies.
Yushu county lies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with seven to eight months of winter each year, limiting reconstruction time to about four to five months a year, Zhang said.
"If we have to finish the reconstruction in three years, then the effective construction time is only 14 to 15 months, posing a great challenge to the post-quake rebuild," he said.
Besides the urgent schedule, transportation is also a headache because the county has only two roads connecting it with the outside, Zhang said.
In order to protect the environment in Yushu, which is the fountainhead for China's three major rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang - few factories for brick and cement were built there, raising construction costs by at least 2 yuan (30 cents) for every brick transported from the outside, Zhang said.
All adobe houses in Gyegu town of Yushu were flattened and 80 percent of brick-concrete structures toppled, according to rescue and relief headquarters.
In addition, Yushu's power supply relies heavily on small hydropower stations, which were badly damaged in the quake.
"All these difficulties must be considered in the post-quake recovery plan," Zhang said.
"However, with donations from all walks of life and the country's support, as well as the efforts of people in Qinghai, we're confident a new Yushu will be built."
As of Sunday, the quake-hit zone had received donations of 3.5 billion yuan ($515 million) in cash, plus relief materials valued at 4 billion yuan, latest official statistics show.
Nearly 60,000 tents and 208,000 quilts had been distributed to survivors in the quake zone, besides 110,000 padded coats, 1,670 tons of food and drinking water, 13,000 stoves and 1,520 tons of coal.
By Sunday, the death toll from the 7.1 magnitude earthquake had climbed to 2,220 with 70 people still missing.
Ma Junde, deputy head of provincial civil affairs, said that ethnic customs and the wishes of bereaved families have been fully respected in the funerals of quake victims.
So far, 2,192 funerals have been conducted.
Xinhua contributed to this story
