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Wen said the task of supplying power is an arduous one in the reconstruction process, because there are clear standards for support facilities for schools and hospitals. In accordance with the requirements of the municipal government of Chengdu, all the schools in Dujiangyan must open by September 1. Wen said despite the pressure, his team remains confident that it will finish the task on time. During the earthquake, 13 members of the construction team died, and the other 27 assumed the workload much heavier than before. They completed 105 projects between May 12 last year and April 24 this year, Wen said.
Assisting farmers
Helping farmers restore production has been a major challenge during the reconstruction. Nearly 200,000 farmers in Sichuan lost their homes, cultivated land and woodland in the earthquake. To tackle the problem, Wei Hong, Deputy Governor of Sichuan Province, said at this year's session of the National People's Congress that the provincial government would first consider resettling the farmers locally or in nearby villages. The province will readjust its arrangement of land resources and resettle farmers who lost their houses and land in their own villages, nearby villages or townships within the same county. By the end of 2008, Sichuan had resettled 150,000 farmers who lost their homes and land in the earthquake.
The farmers also have the option of resettling in other counties or cities. The provincial government has worked out a plan to resettle farmers from two townships in Qingchuan County of Guangyuan City in the city's Jiange County and Yuanba District.
At present, the provincial government has proposed establishing a resettlement spot at the Yuanbaoshan Farm in Qionglai City. A preliminary assessment is in the works, and the local governments of earthquake-hit areas will organize a trip for farmers to visit the farm so that they can apply to resettle there.
Wei said the provincial government would make the resettlement of farmers who lost their land, especially those who lost all their land, a priority. The government encourages and supports local governments to adopt new ways of properly and effectively resettling farmers who lost their land.
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Reconstruction Efforts
The province will give priority to the reconstruction of schools, hospitals and other public service facilities.
Throughout the province there are 9,145 schools to be rebuilt. In the 39 severely affected counties incorporated into the state plan, construction has already started on 1,780 schools, of which 220 have been completed. In the 12 severely affected counties incorporated into the provincial plan, construction has been started on 617 schools.
The province plans to rebuild 4,127 health care institutions, of which 1,951 have been carried out. In the meantime, 749 broadcasting and television, culture and sports projects have been started.
By the end of this year, Sichuan will try to finish 95 percent of the reconstruction plan for schools and health care institutions and accelerate construction on other public service facilities.
In terms of infrastructure and industrial reconstruction, the province has started 681 projects to rebuild highways, railways, civil aviation, telecommunications, energy and water conservation facilities. Another 3,141 projects related to industry, tourism and cultural facilities have been started. Among the 4,812 earthquake-affected industrial enterprises with annual sales revenue exceeding 5 million yuan ($732,064), 97.4 percent have restored production. About 94 percent of trade and service outlets have started operating again.
During the first post-quake Spring Festival holiday week at the end of January, the province received 16.57 million tourists, up 21.9 percent year on year, and earned revenue of 4.7 billion yuan ($688.14 million), an increase of 32.8 percent compared with the same period last year.
(Source: Sichuan Provincial Government)
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