Please provide some information on reconstruction after the 512 Wenchuan earthquake!!

A year ago, the post-earthquake rescue here was faced with "different days". Now, they are also experiencing a different reconstruction experience

On both sides of the Yaodu Bridge, the twelfth lunar month of last year had already The construction of Yujiawan Primary School has been "stop and go", and bulldozers are still digging and leveling the ground half a year later. On the other side, Yaodu Middle School, whose foundation was laid early this year, has already reached its second floor.

Yujiawan belongs to Wenxian County of Gansu Province, and Yaodu belongs to Qingchuan of Sichuan Province, separated only by the Baishui River. In the eyes of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this is more like a reconstruction competition across the Taiwan Strait, although the leaders are unwilling to admit it.

A year ago, after the "5·12" earthquake, the people in Sichuan and Gansu experienced the "different days" of rescue from both sides of the river. The disaster in Wenxian County was once Underestimation and neglect (for details, see "Wen County, Gansu: An Underestimated Earthquake Disaster," Southern Weekend, May 22, 2008).

Now, the inertia of comparison among the people continues. When some people in Yujiawan saw reporters, they came over and said that the reconstruction here was "very slow" compared to the other side.

Most of the houses in Bikou Town under Wen County collapsed or were seriously damaged due to the earthquake, and residents still live in dilapidated houses or tents by the Baishui River.

“Build while shaking”

But the reality is that the reconstruction of rural areas in Wen County has started as fast as Sichuan. Ding Xingwen, deputy director of the county's Construction Bureau, said that on July 10, 2008, their first batch of key villages started construction.

A local official said that the experience of the earthquake being underestimated somewhat stimulated the "eagerness for reconstruction" of superior leaders. As evidence, Longnan City in Gansu Province, where Wen County is located, announced in July last year that it would fully complete post-disaster reconstruction tasks within two years. Sichuan was half a year late in proposing the same goal.

Wenxian County Magistrate Zhang Hong once expressed concern to Xinhua News Agency reporters that post-disaster reconstruction is a complex systematic project, "three years and two years", which actually condenses the system and brings benefits to local governments. come many challenges.

The cost of emergency start-up is insufficient planning and demonstration. An official in charge of reconstruction admitted that they were "planning while recovering." Wen County's post-disaster recovery and reconstruction master plan was "just the work of a few people from the unit." passive".

Perhaps the most straightforward example is the relative lag in road construction. National Highway 212, the "lifeline" that runs through Wenxian County from north to south, was severely damaged by the earthquake. Traffic jams occur almost every day, seriously affecting the transportation of reconstruction materials from other places. It was not until eight months after the reconstruction began that the "upgrading and reconstruction" construction of this road started. Wenxian County officials said, "National highways cannot be controlled by cities and counties."

It is also difficult to advance the reconstruction progress in an orderly manner. The 123 redevelopment villages in Wen County were originally planned to be constructed in three batches. However, Du Xiaobin, deputy director of the Reconstruction Office, discovered that “the batches were all in chaos.” At the end of last year, almost all the reconstruction households in Zhongmiao Township had started construction.

After "5·12", aftershocks continued. The two largest ones were in May and August last year, and Wen County, which is closest to Qingchuan, suffered heavy losses. But this has not stopped it from accelerating the pace of reconstruction. The above-mentioned official said with a smile, "We are building as we shake."

There was some opposition. A cadre of Zhongmiao Township confirmed that after the aftershock in August last year, some victims collectively requested to postpone the construction. The township government therefore reported to the county government, hoping to "postpone it a little."

Due to concerns about the quality of the project, villagers in Qingshuiping Village, which was built with assistance from Shenzhen, also blocked the construction for a time. Yang Deming, the village director, still remembers it vividly. He said that the new village that was being built with assistance was right on the bank of the fast-flowing Baishui River. The construction company entered too early and evened the foundation but did not pull sand at the designated place. The foundation must not be carelessly laid.

Waiting for materials, waiting for craftsmen

The embarrassing situation has not been avoided by the determination of reconstruction. At least for now, the reconstruction progress is gradually slowing down due to multiple pressures such as funds, prices and transportation.

The "proliferation" of reconstruction projects caused a shortage of building materials in Wenxian County, especially bricks. Even the government-supported Shenzhen-aided Lianfeng Village was delayed for ten days due to lack of bricks. .

Currently, there is still a serious shortage of computer bricks. A month ago, Wenxian County, Gansu Province organized an inspection on the county's rural reconstruction situation. It was found that about 1/5 of the new houses had become "half-finished" projects and were in a state of "waiting for materials."

Gui Jinquan, director of Daduba Village, just got 30,000 bricks, half a year after he established the base. "Even the worst-fired bricks can't be pulled out." He said that bricks from the local brick factory have been reserved until the end of the year.

The construction team hired by Gui Jinquan from Suining, Sichuan, contracted the reconstruction project of 6 households in the village, including his own. Work on 4 households was stopped due to lack of bricks, and the workers had to temporarily return to Sichuan. In the whole village, 30% of the reconstruction households are still "waiting for materials."

Tight supply and demand have led to rising prices. In addition to steel bars, the prices of cement and machine bricks have more than doubled compared to before the earthquake.

The Wen County Price Bureau has no choice but to implement a temporary price intervention policy for bricks, cement, steel bars and other building materials. But the “visible hand” of the government seems to be no match for the “invisible hand” of the market. Not long ago, the County Price Bureau issued fines to three local brick factories - their ex-factory prices were too high, but it was difficult to obtain evidence. Later, cement prices fell slightly and steel prices stabilized. To some extent, this was due to the fact that the assistant general manager of Jiuquan Iron and Steel Group was posted to Wen County as deputy county magistrate.

Wage prices are also skyrocketing. The Sichuan construction team hired by Guijin Quan paid 200 yuan per square meter for labor. Before the earthquake, it only cost 80-90 yuan. Local people said that "Sichuan Masters" are more popular than bricks and there is no room for arbitrary bargaining.

We need money, we need policies

This is a county that is still labeled as a national poor county. More than 70% of the 250,000 people are poor. County finance has always relied on Transfer payment from higher level. In the face of unprecedented post-earthquake reconstruction, self-reliance is not easy.

In mid-April, the deputy director of the Post-Disaster Reconstruction Office of the State Council came to Wenxian County for investigation. In the official report materials of Wenxian County, the large gap in reconstruction funds and the difficulty in obtaining loans were listed as the most important "existing problems." ".

Du Xiaobin, deputy director of the Wenxian County Reconstruction Office, said frankly that if the disaster victims rely solely on self-financing, 80% of the self-built households may not be completed and occupied.

During the "Half Lazi" project, he learned that a considerable part of it was due to a broken capital chain. Because "money comes quickly", many farmers can only temporarily put aside rebuilding their homes and go to Inner Mongolia to dig coal, "working today and building houses tomorrow."

The rise in prices has somewhat diluted the intensity of subsidies provided by the state. Wenxian County Magistrate Zhang Hong told Southern Weekend reporters that the 20,000 yuan subsidy given to reconstruction households is actually only equivalent to the original purchasing power of 12,000 yuan.

In Sichuan, disaster victims can also use bank loans to make up for it, but Wen County has only issued loans of 256 million yuan since last year, leaving a gap of 750 million yuan; only 8,972 reconstruction households have received loans. , there are still 26,027 households waiting anxiously.

In Zhongmiao Township Rural Credit Cooperative, disaster victims return home disappointed every day. One woman complained loudly that she had made four trips. Since the end of September and the beginning of October last year, Wenxian Credit Union has stopped credit business for reconstruction projects after issuing the first batch of loans.

This year Wenxian County has coordinated another 30 million yuan loan with Longnan City. In order to use it wisely, it is only allowed to be granted to the most needy groups. In order to benefit more reconstruction households, each loan does not exceed 10,000 yuan. Yuan.

However, after lending more than 10 million yuan, the 30 million yuan plan came to an abrupt end. On April 28, Wenxian Credit Union had to stop most of its normal credit operations because there was no money to issue. Credit unions currently basically rely on re-loans from the People's Bank of China, and these funds cannot be used for long-term projects such as reconstruction. They have been discovered and corrected by regulatory authorities.

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Lu reported that at a recent summary meeting, County Magistrate Zhang Hong said excitedly: "What will happen to farmers if they can't afford the repayments in three years? The credit union may go bankrupt." Almost no one thought that, Disaster victims will be able to repay within three years.

As the county magistrate, Zhang Hong can only control the credit union, the only financial institution. Of the 256 million loans, credit unions accounted for 244 million yuan. Most commercial banks "stand on the sidelines". Only the Agricultural Bank of China has issued a loan of more than 12 million yuan, and the conditions are "harsh" - it must be guaranteed by a "salary" public official.

In Wen County’s report to the Post-Disaster Reconstruction Office of the State Council on April 17, 7 suggestions were made, 5 of which were related to funding. It hoped to obtain greater support from the central finance. In addition, it is also requested to coordinate the financial sector to implement residential housing reconstruction loans in a timely manner.

"Big Pot Rice"

One year later, people in Wenxian County still feel that the outside world pays significantly less attention than Sichuan, even after the media appealed for them and was ignored.

Data from the Wen County Finance Bureau shows: As of March 16 this year, Wen County *** received 13.02 million yuan in donations from units, enterprises, and all walks of life, which is even less than the amount of donations received by some schools in Sichuan .

Zhongmiao Township Mayor Zhang Wendong said that since the earthquake, there are only more than 200 prefabricated houses in the township. Most victims can only spend the winter in tents.

Two weeks ago, Yujiawan Primary School in Zhongmiao Township finally welcomed a teacher Ye from Chengdu and the first load of stationery. Yaodu Town in Qingchuan, opposite Zhongmiao Township, is supported by counterpart support from Yuhuan County, Zhejiang Province, and Qingchuan County, where it is located, is supported by counterpart support from Zhejiang Province. The Shenzhen city responsible for providing counterpart assistance to Jianwen County actually targets 2 counties and 1 district of Longnan City (Wen County, Kang County, and Wudu District) and Zhouqu County in Gannan Prefecture. "Shenzhen's counterpart was determined to assist Wen County in the early days of the earthquake, but later it was changed to assisting the construction of three counties and one district. One family became four families, and one pot of rice became four people." An official in Wen County said.

Although Wen County was the hardest hit in the Longnan region, he did not receive the most funds among the Shenzhen aid projects.

Bikou Town, the hardest-hit area, was all affected. Local victims told Southern Weekend reporters that the project originally thought to be aiding the construction of Bikou was located in Chengguan Town, more than 80 kilometers away.

The central government specially issued a three-year lump sum fund for post-disaster recovery and reconstruction in disaster-stricken areas, but it also faced the problem of being not shared. Some officials said that this money was not available to Wen County and Wuhan County, which were severely affected by the disaster. Except for the metropolitan area and Kang County, all counties and cities in Longnan City have a share. Wen County’s share ranks second among counties in the city, with only 15.69%.

County Magistrate Zhang Hong can only repeatedly appeal to reporters from Shenzhen, hoping that Shenzhen will increase its assistance to Wenxian County, and hopes to use local media to appeal to entrepreneurs and charities to support Wenxian County’s education , medical and other "love projects".

Sequelae

In addition to seeking support from the outside world, Wen County officials also expressed the hope that the victims would not "wait and beg for help." In October last year, Wen County built a night view project on the high mountains on both sides of the county. As night falls, the "starlight" on the mountains and the moon complement each other. An official said that these solar lights can also carry slogans, one is "Build a harmonious Wenxian County" and the other is "Wenxian County has a better tomorrow." He said this can inspire the people of Wen County to have the courage to rebuild their homes.

The reality is that even in Zhongmiao Township, which was severely affected, more than 3,600 households were affected, but the total number of households involved in Shenzhen's assistance was only 360. In other words, 90% of disaster victims need to rely on their own hands to rebuild their homes.

In accordance with the requirements set by superiors after the earthquake, Wen County must complete the task of rural reconstruction by the end of November this year.

At least from the data point of view, the "Shenzhen speed" of several demonstration aid construction sites has indeed driven the county's enthusiasm for reconstruction. Data reported by Wen County to the Reconstruction Office of the State Council stated that of the 34,999 rural households in the county that needed to be rebuilt after the disaster, 94% had started construction, of which 24,099 households had completed construction, accounting for 68.8% of the rebuilt households.

In January this year, after the villagers of Qingshuiping Village happily participated in the move-in ceremony, they returned to live in the mountains and did not celebrate the New Year in their new homes.

Qingshuiping Village has not even been allocated houses yet. The problem is land. Landless farmers need to pay "land occupation fees". This problem should have been solved before construction started. Zhang Taoyun, a 47-year-old farmer from Qingshui Ping Village, blamed the "disunion of people", "We were all thinking happily at the time, but now we have to pay and have no money, and we can't even live."

And in Qingshui According to Yang Deming, director of Ping Village, land is not the biggest problem. The new village cannot be connected to water and electricity, and the sewage facilities are unknown. According to the plan, these infrastructure facilities are borne by the government, and the project application report has just been submitted.