China's earthquake: nearly 5 million homeless
- added May 16, 2008
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- stone246
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The earthquake in China has left almost five million people homeless, officials said today. A total of 4,807,200 people have been forced into “temporary shelter” in Sichuan, said Li Chengyun, the province’s vice-governor. The figure is comparable to the combined population of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
More than 50,000 people are estimated to have died in Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake, China’s deadliest natural disaster in a generation. The extent of the homeless problem became known only today, another provincial official said.
“Before today, communications and roads to some cities and counties in the province were cut off because of the quake,” the official said. “That’s why the number has increased so fast now that links have been restored with the cities and counties.”
The news came as the Chinese government vowed to investigate why so many schools collapsed following the earthquake. Education officials today threatened punishment for anyone found responsible for shoddy building work. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands of children have been among the dead of the earthquake, the biggest single group of victims in almost every town and village affected. In some cases, their schools collapsed about them even though neighbouring apartments blocks, often of much older construction, survived relatively unscathed. In an unprecedented act of openness, state media acknowledged the angry grief of parents, while officials from the education and housing ministries joined in an online discussion.
”If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will punish those responsible severely and give the public a satisfactory answer,” Han Jin, head of the ministry of education's planning department, said on the state-run site. They were compelled to act by the open criticism displayed on websites, to say nothing of the very visible criticisms of parents often still standing outside the schools where their children lay buried.
More than 50,000 people are estimated to have died in Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake, China’s deadliest natural disaster in a generation. The extent of the homeless problem became known only today, another provincial official said.
“Before today, communications and roads to some cities and counties in the province were cut off because of the quake,” the official said. “That’s why the number has increased so fast now that links have been restored with the cities and counties.”
The news came as the Chinese government vowed to investigate why so many schools collapsed following the earthquake. Education officials today threatened punishment for anyone found responsible for shoddy building work. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands of children have been among the dead of the earthquake, the biggest single group of victims in almost every town and village affected. In some cases, their schools collapsed about them even though neighbouring apartments blocks, often of much older construction, survived relatively unscathed. In an unprecedented act of openness, state media acknowledged the angry grief of parents, while officials from the education and housing ministries joined in an online discussion.
”If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will punish those responsible severely and give the public a satisfactory answer,” Han Jin, head of the ministry of education's planning department, said on the state-run site. They were compelled to act by the open criticism displayed on websites, to say nothing of the very visible criticisms of parents often still standing outside the schools where their children lay buried.
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These numbers are so massive that I don't believe we can fully comprehend the impact the earthquake will have until the reality becomes a more desperate situation in the coming days.
5 million people to be left without shelter is a major disaster, we can hope that the increased attention China has received with regard to their human rights record will ensure they kick start relief efforts.-
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- phillyharper
- 2 months ago
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Wow, that is a lot of displaced people. Most people are better off going into the country and trying to start over, no way the insurance companies can pay for all that.
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our government had really did a lot to rescue the surviors in the earthquake. now China's human rights is better than before.
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- rosemary04111
- 2 months ago
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