Of Sichuan's landscape people used to say, "Beyond these mountains are even bigger mountains". This could now be one way to describe all the work that needs to be done to help the people in areas hit by the recent earthquake.
As the debris in the quake-hit towns are shoveled and cleared and actions taken to control accompanying threats (like floods and diseases), people are beginning to realize more and more what a Herculean task still remains in helping the victims find their new homes. Not just those who have lost their houses, but also those who have lost their factories (and jobs), and those who have lost their streets and towns.
It is still to be ascertained whether people will have to be evacuated from an extensive area of the mountains due to the unsafe geological conditions following the major earthquake, and also due to the constant pressure from the push of the Indian plate of the earth's crust toward the Himalayas and areas beyond (Sichuan being one).
As initially reported by government officials, the quake made 5 million people homeless. There are also people who report they can no longer find their farms due to the drastic change of the landscape and the enormous landslides.
China needs to answer several major questions before it can have a clear sense of direction in Sichuan's post-quake re-development.
First, is the re-development to be led by the provincial government or by the central government, from a separate account in the national finance? The nation would feel more assured with the central government being the main leader and financer of the re-development program, with Sichuan's provincial government, which has no experience nor record in dealing with a crisis of such magnitude, taking care of the rest of the province's economy.
Second, are the homeless people to be re-arranged in farming or in urban off-farm jobs? If officials opt for a simple solution, they may think that building a few new villages would be a good idea. But there may be too many people out there to be accommodated by just a few villages. Their number may warrant not just a few towns, but a few cities.
In a related issue, people may argue that many of those people have just been farmers. So how can they take on urban jobs instantly? Admittedly, many of them are farmers. But there are also many people who are not. They are townspeople and have been running all sorts of small services in the small towns now wiped out by the quake.
As often is the case, most Chinese farmers' families have members working on off-farm jobs. And if they did not, few would hate living in the cities.
Realistically, being a construction worker on some government-financed infrastructure projects can be the easiest way for farmers to earn off-farm incomes - and certainly much easier than building new farms and planting new crops.
Third and more importantly, whether it makes more sense to implement a relocation program by dispersing the old communities than by helping the quake victims keep up their social networks?
Sending the victims in small groups to different towns within or outside Sichuan may seem a cheaper solution. But as a result of that, the new migrants may lose touch with their relatives and neighbors and feel marginalized in their adopted hometowns.
Helping entire communities rebuild their homes in new places may seem to require more planning and more financial support. But once that is done, the social result can presumably be more rewarding, and helpful to the central government's goal of building a "harmonious society".
The last question, however, is the most practical one. If China is going to build some new cities for the quake-affected communities, where can they be? Will they be satellite towns to existing cities or completely new ones? Will they be in Sichuan or outside the disaster-prone province? This is an issue that people cannot decide until they are aided by a massive quantity of expert opinions.
E-mail: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 06/09/2008 page4)
