China quake: Rebuilding to take 3 yrs; death toll nears 56,000

BEIJING: Bracing up for the mammoth task of post-disaster reconstruction, China on Friday said it would take three years to rebuild towns and villages pulverised by the devastating earthquake in southwest Sichuan province as the official toll neared 56,000 with thousands more remaining missing.
    
Eleven days after the country's worst quake in three decades struck tens of thousands of soldiers and relief workers were grappling with reconstruction and rehabilitation of millions rendered homeless while not completely giving up hope of still finding survivors.
    
There was a jump in the death toll by 4,589 from Thursday, as it climbed to 55,740, with 24,960 missing, the Information Office of the State Council or the Cabinet said. Nearly 11.37 million quake survivors were relocated, it said, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
    
In Sichuan province alone which bore almost the entire brunt of the 8.0 magnitude temblor, the death toll was 55,239, Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said in Beijing.
    
More bodies are expected to be pulled out from the rubble of schools, hospitals, factories, houses and other buildings but Li said rescuing survivors still remained the top priority in the province. "We will not give up on trying to save people."
    
Relief workers were speeding up their efforts as the Chinese National Meteorological Centre forecast that rains might sweep the quake-hit southwest regions next week and further push up the water level in the "quake lakes" formed by landslides and mud-flows that have blocked rivers.

Quake survivors living downstream were being evacuated by authorities as fears of aftershocks causing flooding also haunted them. Of the 34 "quake lakes" in Sichuan province, eight hold more than three million cubic metres of water, adding potential danger for the already quake-shattered people, Xinhua said.
    
Post-disaster reconstruction would take three years, including building new villages, townships and cities in Sichuan where 19 of the 21 cities and prefectures covering 100,000 sq kms were "seriously ruined," Li said.
    
"The rebuilding work would face a lot of difficulty in the region, where the mountains have been shaken loose in the 8-magnitude earthquake and more than 7,000 aftershocks felt," he said.
    
More than five million people have been rendered homeless and Chinese government said it needs three million tents to provide temporary shelter to them.
    
Back in the frontline in the disaster zone on his second trip, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the focus of relief work has shifted from rescuing lives to rehabilitating the quake victims and local society. "It will be a harder and long-term task," he said in Beichuan county, one of the worst-hit by the quake.
    
A top official said there had been no signs of leaks in nuclear facilities in Sichuan province but 15 radiation "sources" were still inaccessible.
    
Experts had identified 50 radiation sources and moved 35 of them to safe areas, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, Wu Xiaoqing, said. The region has some key atomic sites and the country's chief nuclear weapons research lab.
    
Wu said three of the remaining 15 sources were buried under the rubble while 12 were in "dangerous buildings" that technicians could not enter.
    
"We have asked local government to inform us when they plan to clean the rubble," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "We did not find any radioactive substantive leaks into the environment."
    
No miracle rescue was reported today as China struggled to meet the demand for tents and said there was a "big gap" in the supply and the actual requirement.
    
Reflecting the gravity of the problem, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited two tent manufacturers in Zhejiang province on Thursday, urging them to produce as many as possible.
    
"Currently, we are in urgent need of tents. Because many victims are lacking shelter," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday. More than 3.3 million were needed but 400,000 had been sent so far.
    
"It is a big gap. We welcome international assistance in this regard."
    
China said on Wednesday that it would slash government spending by five per cent this year and pledged $10.14 billion for a fund for reconstruction in the earthquake-devastated region.
    
Authorities are also going all out to prevent outbreak of epidemics and Sichuan province remained on high alert for rodent diseases, Xinhua said. Monitoring locations and a daily reporting system had been put in place, it said.
    
Thirty-three roads in Sichuan province still remained blocked and workers were racing against time to repair the damaged ones, Li said.