Emergency Relief Efforts of 2008 ChiEmergency Relief Efforts of 2008 China Wenchuan Earthquakena Wenchuan Earthquake

Ministry of Civil Affairs, P.R. ChinaMinistry of Civil Affairs, P.R. ChinaDecember 5, 2008December 5, 2008

The deadly 8.0-magnitude earthquake has caused 69,226 dead and 17,923 still missing, destroyed 7.96 million houses and 24.54 million houses in 417 counties, and directly affected about 46 million people.

Massive landslides and collapsed bridges resulted in traffic failure.

landslide

broken bridge

Beichuan County

The highways are buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rockslides lining the roads hamper the rescue efforts to a large extent.

Continuous aftershocks, earthquake lakes and a bunch of other things made rescue work much harder.

Evacuation was urgently carried out in the remote and mountainous quake-hit areas.

On May 12, the State Council set up the Earthquake Relief

Headquarters, which was composed of 9 working teams. On May

15, the headquarters decided to set up the Front Line Commanding

Headquarters in Chengdu, coordinating the front line disaster relief

efforts.

Earthquake Relief HeadquartersEarthquake Relief Headquarters

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed police, militia and reserve troops went all out into the rescue efforts. The troops were swiftly deployed in quake-hit areas both by land and air for rescue operation and reconstruction.

The government had mobilized about 140,000 troops, armed police and millions of reservists to help with the relief work in quake-hit areas, where they strived to operate rescue tasks, restore transport avenues, prevent quake-triggered secondary disasters, clear debris and relocate quake survivors.

About 1.48 million stranded victims had been transferred to safe shelters, and 84017 survivals were successfully rescued from the collapsed buildings or debris.

374,643 people were injured in the disaster, and some were seriously

injured. The central government implemented a free-of-charge policy for the

cure of the common wounded. As of Sept. 15, hospitals in major cities had treated 96,544 quake

survivors, of whom 93,361 have been discharged.

Emergency Medical PolicyEmergency Medical Policy

The central government launched a special mechanism to mobilize various provinces to accept the seriously injured. More than 10,000 injured people had been transferred to hospitals outside Sichuan Province for treatment

The central government provided an average of 28,000 yuan one person medical subsidy, and the subsidies for accompanying and nursing staffs and for the return journey of both.

Emergency Medical PolicyEmergency Medical Policy

The central government confirmed the policy of dealing with the remains and established the solatium system.

How to handle nearly 70,000 victims' remains is a big challenge to the disaster relief work.

Ministry of civil affairs, public security, and public health timely made the relevant policy of body disposal, and at the same time, the state promulgated a regulation that it would give each family of the victims 5,000 yuan solatium.

Body Disposal and Solatium PolicyBody Disposal and Solatium Policy

Sichuan province initiated the mechanism for all-round lodging of the affected people, coping with the emergency evacuation of millions of the affected people from mountainous regions. Almost all the towns along the affected areas became the lodging sites for the affected people.

Temporary ResettlementTemporary Resettlement

The quake-hit areas urgently needed tents, quilts, food, medicines.

404,944 tonnes of grain and 9,435 tonnes of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves.

Government spending on relief and reconstruction had exceeded 67.55 billion yuan including 60.09 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.46 billion yuan from the local budget.

Input of Relief Funds and GoodsInput of Relief Funds and Goods

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 3.77 million tonnes of fuel and 8.06 million tonnes of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas.

The Headquarters promptly decided to make an emergency production of 900,000 tents and a million of sets of plank houses, so as to ensure the victims' temporary shelter.

Relief workers had built 677,131 temporary houses.

About 10 million people, or 4.45 million households, had moved into makeshift housing.

Sichuan Province gave the farmers who build temporary shelters themselves a subsidy of 2,000 yuan per family to encourage farmers to build interim houses.

The quake has left millions of people homeless and destitute. Since the disaster, every needy survivor has been eligible to receive 10 yuan and 500 grams of food a day. The policy covered about 8.82 million people which was carried out starting from June to August.

The policy covered such categories as

orphans, the elderly and the disabled without family support,

those whose relatives were dead or severely injured,

those who were displaced,

and those whose residences were destroyed.

Emergency Relief Policy on Ensuring Basic Living DemandsEmergency Relief Policy on Ensuring Basic Living Demands

Life in most parts of the quake area will return to normal by September, but, in some worst-hit areas, some people might still suffer difficulties. To help them, the central government decided to continue financial assistance after the policy ends.

This July, the central government formulated a follow-up temporary subsidy plan for quake survivors starting from September to November, with each survivor experiencing financial hardship to get 200 yuan per month. The new policy doesn't include any food allotment.

Some types of survivors could receive more than the minimum. Under the old policy, about 261,000 orphans, elderly and disabled without family support have received 600 yuan a month. Under the new policy, they will receive more than 200 yuan.

Emergency Relief Policy on Ensuring Basic Living DemandsEmergency Relief Policy on Ensuring Basic Living Demands

Social Participation and DonationSocial Participation and Donation

As of November. 25, domestic and foreign donations had reached 65.4 billion yuan in cash and goods. Of this, 27 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

An estimated 180,000 volunteers from across the country went to aid survivors, taking part in rescue work, medical and psychological care, relief distribution, maintaining social order and cultural activities.

The international community has demonstrated a highly commendable spirit of humanitarianism by extending helping hands, materials and sympathy.

The 3 days after earthquake, 151 countries and 14 regional or international organizations had offered support in various forms. Foreign rescue teams joined the joint relief efforts.

So far, more than 4 billion yuan of donation in cash and goods has been donated from abroad to China through diplomatic channels.

International AssistancesInternational Assistances

All government departments and social organizations dealing with relief supplies and donations to publicize information on

the total amount of funds allocated by the central or local

governments,

the sources and whereabouts of donated funds ,

and the price and quantity of relief supplies purchased.

Auditing organs were required to account for the relief and donations and to regularly publicize the results.

Management of Relief Funds and GoodsManagement of Relief Funds and Goods

Four principles for donation management:

Donation should be made voluntarily rather than compulsorily; Organizations should respect donors' will in using the donations; Donations should go to the exact needs of quake relief and rehabilitation, especially to hard-hit areas; Governments and organizations should follow a legal and standardized way to distribute donations and publicize the results timely.

Government tightens management on quake donation

The audit offices and fiscal departments were asked to track the donation. The supervision departments would inspect the government's management on donations. The media are encouraged to keep a close eye on any malpractice.

On June 11, the State Council made a formal decision to establish an all-round counterpart-support system of recovery and reconstruction with "one province helping one heavily stricken county."

Counterpart-support MechanismCounterpart-support Mechanism

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