Posts Tagged ‘aid’

20090221: Asian Development Bank approves USD 400 million of loans for reconstruction

Friday, February 27th, 2009

亚行贷款资助中国地震灾区重建公路与学校
2009-02-21    来源:新华网
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), headquarter in Manila, the Philippines, announced on 20th that, the board of ADB had approved the emergency aid loans, which amounted to 400 million U.S. dollars, to help on rebuild some of the highways and schools that had been damaged in the Wenchuan Earthquake.
According to ADB, this batch of loan will be used to support the reconstruction work in Sichuan and Shanxi, specifically, 350 highways and 12 schools. The time limit is 32 years, including 8-year grace period.
Previously, ADB had provided 16.5 million grant to Sichuan, which was used to improve national disaster risk management system and reconstructive projects. In addition to these 2 batches of aid, ADB intend to finance 700 thousand dollars to help enhance coordination and supervision in reconstruction work.
总部设在马尼拉的亚洲开发银行20日宣布,亚行董事会日前批准了总额为4亿美元的紧急援助贷款,帮助重建在去年汶川特大地震中损毁的部分公路和中小学校舍。

亚行说,这笔贷款将支持四川省和陕西省地震重灾区完成350条公路和12所学校的重建工程,贷款的期限为32年,包括8年宽限期。

亚行此前已向四川地震灾区提供总额165万美元的赠款,用于灾后重建和完善国家灾害风险管理体系。此外,亚行有意再融资70万美元协助灾后重建工作的协调与监督。

汶川大地震灾区生源毕业生可获求职补贴

20090113: Xinhuanet: China plans 9 billion Yuan aid for the impoverished

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

China plans 9 billion Yuan aid for the impoverished

2009-01-13 16:18:25

China announced on Tuesday an aid package totaling 9 billion Yuan (1.32 billion U.S. dollars) for the country’s needy people two weeks ahead of its traditional Lunar New Year.
About 74 million Chinese receiving the minimum living allowances or the “five guarantees” (namely food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses provided by local governments to those without relatives or employment), would receive a one-off payment of 100 Yuan if they live in the countryside and 150 Yuan if they live in the cities.
The rural allowance was less than that in urban areas because living costs there were lower.
The payment would be made from the central budget before the Chinese Lunar New Year, one of the most important occasions for family reunion in the country. This year’s Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 26.
By Tuesday, the southwestern province of Sichuan, jolted by the magnitude-8 earthquake in May, allocated 394 million Yuan for clothing and shelter to help the quake-affected people get through the harsh winter. This relief comes in addition to the nationwide aid package.
Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, even handed out 100-yuan-worth shopping coupons to the needy citizens.
The neighboring province of Shaanxi, also jolted during the May earthquake, donated about 850,000 quilts and 110,000 pieces of clothing to its quake-affected people.
The province also granted rural and urban citizens living on the minimum living allowances an extra payment of their monthly minimum living allowances. Funds to cover heating expenses were also given out to those who lived on the minimum living allowances.
“The Chinese government attaches great concern to the livelihood of the disadvantaged population, especially in times of a global financial crisis,” Jiang Li, Vice Minister of the Civil Affairs said.
Local authorities must make sure all needy citizens qualifying for the aid package receive the payment in time, “so that they could enjoy a happy Lunar New Year,” he said.
The average annual net income for rural workers in China is 4,140 Yuan in 2007, against 24,932 Yuan in cities.
At present, about 62 million Chinese receive monthly minimum living allowances from the local governments, while 5.3 million people receive the “five guarantees.”
The average monthly allowance in 2007 was 182.4 Yuan in urban districts per person and 70 Yuan in rural areas. China had increased the monthly minimum living allowance by 15 Yuan in urban districts per person and by 10 Yuan for rural residents at the beginning of 2008.

Report on temporary school for Shuimo Town students

Monday, January 5th, 2009

SQR visit report on a school: a good example of how stretched resources are, and how resiliently people are coping.

Basic Situation

The school was moved to Emei Shan City from Shuimo town in Wenchuan in August when it was completely destroyed by the May earthquake.

Comprising 786 students (ranging from age 12 to 15 and 46% of them are Tibetan, Qiang and Hui minorities) and 55 teachers (including dormitory management personnel), more than 800 people were allocated classroom and dorms that had been converted from workshops and warehouses in Shuren Vocational Middle School in Emei Shan City. This means the original dining room that was designed to cope with 300 people now has to cater for nearly 1000.  Some students have to eat standing up.  The same problem is found in the dormitories: according to Yang, the principle of Shuimo Middle, the most crowded room has 30 students. Thanks to the money given by Emei Shan government, a fairly good boiler room was installed, so children can have hot showers from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm every day.

Students have classes five and half days a week, from 8am to 8pm. Their little free time is spent reading a few dozen books, donated by government or individuals and stored in a 10-square-metre large “library”, or limited sports exercises in the simple playground.

With a small range of medicines, the one school doctor arranged by Emei Shan government can only deal with basic illnesses in the small school clinic.  Therefore students have to be taken to hospital in town in the occurrence of major injury or other emergencies.

Other support

Hua Dan and Leshan Teacher Training College: occasional teaching support at weekends.

Help Request

Medicine (for cold, fever, diarrhea, athlete’s foot)
Books (for secondary school students and teaching material for teacher)
Doctors (if possible) and teachers (for weekend fun teaching)

Location

Shuren Vocational Middle School in Emei Shan City (2 and a half hrs from Chengdu, half an hour from the city centre of Emei.)

News round-up

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

2008-11-27, source: Sichuan News

According to relative sources from Chengdu Department of Sanitation, the work of flu vaccination in the Chengdu disaster area has been accomplished. 452,654 people from Dujiangyan, Pengzhou, and Chouzhong received a free flu vaccinations.

2008-12-02, source: Xinhua

The Central Ministry of Finance revealed the budget of 520 million RMB for post-disaster development of the Department of Meteorology in order to improve the level of its monitoring, alarming and other services, within 3 years.

2008-12-02, source: Beijing Youth Daily

According to an official in Beichuan Information Department, the initial reconstruction planning of Beichuan is has been completed. The general plan will come out in mid-December, to be deliberated and discussed by the provincial government and finally approved before January next year.

The new Beichuan, which occupies 9-10 sq km, is to be situated in An Xian, 2km away from east An Chang and 20km away from its original site. Infrastructure, including emergency sanctuary, water and electricity supply, will be established follow quake-resistant standards.

As revealed in the scheme, new Beichuan will be divided into 2 parts by An Chang River. The east part (6 sq km) is the immediate construction area, the 4 sq km centre of which will be used for first phrase construction. The other side of the river is planned for long-term use. The estimated population in east and west area will be 57-61 thousand and 38-40 thousand respectively.

To build a Qiang Minority Custom Museum and a tourist service centre is also included in the scheme.

Another focus is the rebuilding of schools and other educational institutions. It is planed that 3.91% of the construction-use filed will be employed for Beichuan Middle school, Beichuan Vocational High School, Southwestern University for Nationalities, plus other 8 primary schools and 9 kindergartens.

To sum up, 19.32 billion RMB will be invested in major projects that includes residential, educational, medical and welfare facilities as immediate objectives.

2008-12-03, source: People’s Daily

9 highways and 11 provincial motor ways, 260 thousand km in total, were severely damaged during the 5.12 Quake; a substantial loss of 56.28 billion Yuan.

On 3rd December, 29 traffic reconstruction projects in Sichuan went into operation. This includes 24 critical highways and 5 bus stations, costing 5.03 billion and 24 million RMB respectively. In addition to the 24 projects started previously, there are 53 projects undergoing, with total investment of 28.7 billion RMB, accounting for 42% of the objective of general planning. It is expected that this percentage will increase to 89% by the end of the year. And before March next year, the rest will be under construction.

2008-12-03, source: China Economic News

“The subsidy for rebuilding is 28 thousand yuan per family, but only 3000 to 5000 for repair,” said Yin Taichao, chairman of Luoshui Town Party Committee.

The policy announced in August prescribed reconstruction must apply certain structures that were designed by experts. Used material and non-professional workers could not be employed. Therefore, it will cost at least 60 thousand RMB to rebuild a house, which is apparently unaffordable to villagers, especially the elders who cannot easily get loans from bank. Consequently, most of the residents opted to apply for subsidies for repair as opposed to rebuild.

But during the last few months, aftershocks have been gradually tearing their houses apart. Simple repair is no longer an option. Further, the policy has changed: used material and hiring non-professional workers is now acceptable; the government only supervises quality-related issues. Naturally, many people have changed their minds and decided to rebuild their homes.

However, this didn’t go as smoothly as people had expected. When the new policy came out, some village heads decided to hand in the former list of villagers’ application as in good attention to “save some money for the country” and didn’t anticipate such substantial effects of aftershocks. So now the problem is, “the applicants were inputted to the government database and it’s said we can’t change it now,” said Yin. “But you’ve seen the houses, how can we just repair them? The aftershocks will last at least 2 years. They won’t last that long.”

In addition to this, it is difficult to define “per family”, since the census is inconsistent with the registration. A registered family, consisting of 10 people, could be actually 3 families. Should it be village heads’ right to decide how subsidies goes or should it be discussed by villagers? This will cause much dispute without doubt.

The story is not over. According to Yin, there are 2 institutions that distribute loans to residents, because Luoshui town is combined with 2 different towns —- therefore 2 directors of the rustic banks, one of which is so rigid that complicated and time-consuming procedures are required for loans. “(So) the reconstruction is to some extents slowed down,” said Yin.

“The objective commanded by the city council is to start 60% rebuilding projects before Spring Festival and finish 30%. But materials these days are so expensive.” Yin viewed this as the biggest problem. And this is actually the universal problem in all disaster area. “Perhaps only 50% reconstruction can be started. It’s difficult to achieve 30% completion, though there are already 3000 families working on it.”

Original Chinese versions

成都地震灾区流感疫苗接种完成

2008-11-27

来源: 四川新闻网

汶川地震灾区气象防灾减灾能力将超过震前水平

2008年12月02日

来源:新华网

为帮助汶川地震灾区气象部门高标准、高起点、高要求完成重建任务,财政部明确气象部门灾后恢复重建中央预算资金为5.2亿元,目标是用3年左右的时间,使灾区的气象监测、预警和服务能力超过震前水平。

北川规划确定县城新址

2008-12-02 北京青年报

北川新县城选址初步确定为安县安昌镇以东约2公里处,距离老县城约20公里,供水等设施可抗8级地震,北川中学将占地15公顷。昨天,北川县委宣传部一位姓廖的工作人员介绍,目前新县城重建方案已经基本出来了,正在征求意见。记者从中国城市规划设计研究院了解到,该院已于前两日向北川县汇报了新规划的内容,现在是一个初步规划,将于12月中旬完成总体规划成果编制,争取在明年元旦前完成省政府审批程序。

据规划初案显示,新北川县城将以安昌河为界分为东西两部分,安昌河以西为远景可建设用地。据当地媒体报道,安昌河以东为近期建设区,总面积6平方公里,其中适宜建设面积5平方公里,中间为一期建设核心区,为4平方公里的先期启动区,两侧为一期建设拓展区,各1平方公里。

在初案中,居住用地规划为246公顷,其中河东150公顷,河西96公顷,新县城核心区和拓展区人口规模预计为5.7万到6.1万人,河西远景区可建用地人口规模为3.8万到4万人。
在北川新县城的规划初案中,还包括旅游服务中心0.5公顷和4.2公顷的羌族民俗博物馆。

在这份初案中,教育科研设施用地40.48公顷,占建设用地比例为3.91%,而国际标准为2.4%到3.0%, 人均用地为4.1平方米/人,而国际标准为2.5平方米/人到3.2平方米/人,均高于国际标准。教育建设用地包括北川中学、北川职业中学、西南民族大学分校区和8所小学、9所幼儿园,其中地震时受到关注的北川中学占地为15公顷。

在近期重点项目投资上,列出了安置住房、文化教育设施、医疗卫生设施、社会福利设施、政权设施、基础设施,共投资193.2亿元的项目。

四川29个交通灾后重建项目启动 三年投入千亿元

来源:人民网 12月3日

据悉,四川省此次集中开工的灾后重建交通项目29个,总投资50.54亿元,其中,国省干线及重要经济干线公路项目24个,投资50.3亿元,市县级客运站点项目5个,投资0.24亿元。加上此前开工的24个项目,全省累计开工项目53个,投资287亿元,占规划目标的42%。到年底,还将开工项目54个,累计达到107个,总投资614亿元,占规划目标的89%。明年3月底前,所有项目将全部开工建设。

地震重灾区什邡洛水镇数百农户重建难题多

中国经济新闻网-中国经济时报 2008-12-03

11月21日,“汶川地震”重灾区什邡市洛水镇党委书记尹太超告诉中国经济时报记者,平坝地区重建的国家补助是每户28000元,维修是3000元至5000元不等。“当初说是要重建就统一建,说什么旧瓦、旧砖、旧木料都不许用,我们还只能照上面划定的户型选。从17万到8万多,最起码也要6万多,我们根本建不起。当时的裂口哪有这么大啊,就是一些印子。我们又不懂,以为不会有事的。哪晓得到现在余震还不断,口子越开越大,还是斜着下来,越来越长。这个样子就维修不好了,只能改成重建。可上面却不同意了,说是当初我们上报的是维修,就只能按照维修来给补助,这我们得多冤哪!”

材料报了好几次,最早大家都报的是重建。后来说房子全部推倒后材料也要报废清走,施工要请有资质的建筑队,这下子材料费、工钱都会很高,而且我们五六十岁的人还不给贷款,我当时看房子缝隙还不太大,就又在新的材料里报了个维修加固。结果报上去之后,余震不断,墙缝越来越大,要修就得推倒重新码墙。新的政策也下来了,旧材料可以用,也可以自己请人工来建,政府只是监督质量,算个账,加上国家补助,我们完全可以重建得起了。我们去找上面,找到市里,说是上报的材料已经在微机里锁定,无法修改。

另据记者了解,由于重建补助依户发放,灾后许多乡村产生了“事实分户”的问题。农村家庭过去不重视户口,分家分房不分户的情况很多。因此,政策便将究竟是否确定“事实分户”的权力下放到各村的小组会,由村民们自己根据实际情况开会决定。即便如此,还是会有扯不清的情况。洛水镇永兴村有十多户村民找到记者诉说此事。据了解,曾到镇里反映的也有上百家。对此,尹太超表示,政策有一个刚性,已经确定分户的,恐怕不能再改。

此外,洛水镇是由原来的洛水和灵杰两个乡镇合并来的。因此,重建中给农民发放贷款的机构便与其他乡镇不同——有两个信用社,虽说政策规定得很好,但实际发放贷款还是取决于信用社主任的态度。据尹太超介绍,一个主任很支持,发放起来很顺当,但另一个主任要求的手续却很繁琐,影响到了农房重建的进度。

洛水镇遭遇的众多难题中,还有一个是灾区普遍性的——建材疯狂涨价。尹太超将这看做是农房重建中最大的障碍。他说,市里给的指标是,重建的农房春节前要实现60%开工,30%完成。现在建材这么高的价,恐怕到春节也只能有50%开工,虽说已经在建的农户有3000户,但要达到春节前30%完成的指标,还是有困难。