Temporary homes to house Chinese earthquake victims

Canada News.Net
Thursday 22nd May, 2008

China's ministry of housing and urban-rural development has asked authorities in the areas hit by the May 12th earthquake to build one million temporary homes for the victims.

A circular issued by the ministry stipulated that local authorities should construct one primary school, one clinic and one retail store for every 1,000 temporary homes.

For every 2,000 houses, a middle school should be built, it added.

The circular said the temporary homes should be either assembled with steel sandwich panels or made of lightweight steel and plywood kit sets.

It set August 10th as the deadline to complete construction of the transit houses.

On May 12th, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest China and affected many other parts of the country.

The death toll had increased to 51,000, according to government estimate.

In Sichuan province, 2.9 million houses were flattened and more than 14 million damaged, making millions of people homeless, according to a rough estimate.

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