China steps up aid effort
2008-05-21 10:47
Mianzhu - China scrambled on Wednesday to deliver tents and other essential materials to the five million people made homeless by last week's earthquake, as international aid began to flow in.
With hope virtually extinguished of finding more survivors amid the devastated towns and villages of mountainous Sichuan province, soldiers and relief workers focused on the desperate plight of those displaced.
Nine days after the 8.0-magnitude quake, the official number of people killed is 40 075 but tens of thousands of others are still missing, raising fears the death toll could yet soar dramatically.
China has deployed a massive military force into Sichuan and their initial campaign to find people under the rubble has now largely transformed into looking after the five million who lost their homes in the disaster.
"We don't have anything. We don't know where we're going to find money to rebuild our village," said Ma Jingsuan, 52, who was one of 7 000 people seeking refuge among a sea of blue tents on the fringes of Sichuan's Mianzhu city.
"We're entirely dependent on the government."
Bulldozers levelling ground
In scenes being repeated across many cities in Sichuan, bulldozers were levelling ground to set up camps, according to AFP reporters there.
The most pressing priorities are providing shelter and staving off disease, and Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered 900 000 tents to be sent to the disaster area over the next month, and up to one million makeshift structures by August.
China has faced some criticism for not allowing in specialist search and rescue teams from overseas immediately after the quake, and then only allowing in small contingents from a few countries.
However China has been more open in the campaign to look after the displaced, and plane loads of aid from countries as diverse as the Ukraine, Russia, the United States and Singapore have landed in southwest China.
That international effort was ramping up, after China appealed on Tuesday for tents and other supplies from within China and overseas.
Treating the nearly 250 000 people injured has become an overwhelming task, and the official Xinhua news agency reported that the German Red Cross was sending over a mobile hospital to operate in Sichuan.
It would be capable of accommodating 120 patients and be the first facility of its kind contributed by any country.
- AFP