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Compensation brings relief

By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-23 10:31

Song Juan received 29,000 yuan ($4,140) yesterday. She is among the first quake survivors to be paid compensation.

She lost her mother in the catastrophe, and spent 7,000 yuan for "a decent funeral". The resident of Xingfu village in Dujiangyan now plans to use part of the compensation to buy some clothes and cooking appliances.

The government began paying compensation to the quake survivors yesterday to enable them to perform the last rites of their relatives and buy the basic necessities.

"We needed some money urgently because we lost nearly everything in the quake," says Song, whose house collapsed on May 12, killing her mother. The only things she and her husband could retrieve from the debris was a stove.

"The government has responded on time and with efficiency to the needs of the victims," Song says. "It has even made the compensation procedure easy."

More than 3,000 people had been confirmed dead in Dujiangyan till yesterday morning, with the number of casualties crossing 51,000.

The local social security bureau began granting relief funds to families who had lost their pension-covered relatives. "Actually, nearly all urban residents who have a decent job are covered by the program, and their bereaved relatives could get the compensation amount from the local authorities," says Lu Maodun, deputy head of the bureau. He distributes the checks from a makeshift office because the bureau's office building collapsed in the quake.

The survivors can cash the checks easily at a nearby bank, Lu says. But only a dozen-odd households have picked up the money so far.

The bureau, however, is spreading the information through mobile text messages, and tens of thousands of people are expected to collect it in the next few days.

In addition, the local civil affairs apartment will pay 5,000 yuan to every family that has lost a member to the quake.

In Dujiangyan, close to Sichuan province's capital of Chengdu, people were emotionally stable, even though thousands of homeless were staying in tents, spread over hundreds of meters on Tianfu Avenue.

Prices of essentials have remained steady, the residents say, because most food supplies are allocated and the region is very close to rural areas, from where grains, vegetables and meat are supplied.

"The government has done an excellent job in helping us," says Li Bin, a homeless schoolteacher.

The area is disinfected twice a day and workers collect garbage regularly to pre-empt any outbreak of disease. Also, makeshift toilets and bathrooms have been built to keep the area clean.