All the adobe houses in Gyegu Town of Yushu were flattened and 80 percent of brick-concrete structures collapsed, according to rescue and relief headquarters.

In addition, Yushu's power supply relies heavily on small hydropower stations, which were badly damaged during the earthquake.

"All these difficulties must be considered in the post-quake reconstruction plan," Zhang said.

"However, with donations from all walks of life and the country's support, as well as the efforts of people in Qinghai, we're confident a new Yushu will be built," he said.

As of April 25, the quake-hit zone had received donations of 3.5 billion yuan ($512.5 million) in cash, plus relief materials valued at 4 billion yuan ($585.6 million), the latest official statistics have shown.

A total of 59,093 tents and 207,959 quilts had been distributed to survivors, in addition to more than 110,000 padded coats, 1,670 tons of food and drinking water, 13,000 stoves and 1,520 tons of coal.

Meanwhile, Vice Premier Hui said that the orderly distribution and supervision of earthquake donations must be strengthened, adding that hygiene and disease control must be improved and that the prevention and control of plague and rabies were a priority.

Epidemic prevention

The Ministry of Health called for measures to be stepped up in the earthquake zone on April 25 to prevent an outbreak of marmot plague after Himalayan marmots were detected in the area.

The marmots were found in the Horse Racing Ground, a temporary settlement for earthquake survivors in Gyegu Town, the ministry said.

So far no outbreak of major epidemics, including the plague, have been reported, but epidemiological experts said the challenges in averting and controlling an outbreak of marmot plague in the earthquake-hit area were considerable.

Marmots, a type of ground squirrel indigenous to the region, has woken from hibernation, increasing the possibility of an outbreak of the fatal disease amongst earthquake survivors, the ministry said on April 26.

The plague is particularly virulent because it can be passed to other people via coughing. If left untreated, mortality rates range from 50 to 90 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

The ministry has been closely monitoring marmot activity in a 600-hectare area in the earthquake zone, which has a history of plague outbreaks.

During the past five decades, Yushu has seen 20 outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of the plague, the latest in 2004 claiming six lives, according to Yu Dongzheng, a researcher specializing in epidemic prevention with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

To help raise public awareness, China CDC has so far delivered 80,000 bilingual disease prevention brochures in Chinese and Tibetan, and 10,000 plague prevention leaflets to the earthquake zone.

More than 3,000 people, including medical experts and monks, were trained on how to control and prevent marmot plague.

Ni also warned of other epidemic hazards in the earthquake zone, including rabies, anthrax and other contagious diseases capable of animal-to-human transfer.

Although Yushu has reported no rabies outbreaks in recent years, many dogs are wandering the streets and some dog bites have been reported, said Deng Ershou, Deputy Director of Qinghai CDC.

Currently, a total of 308 disease control professionals, divided into 19 teams, were conducting disinfections in the tents of earthquake survivors, monitoring water quality and disease, and spreading health information among the earthquake survivors, Liang Wannian, Director of the Emergency Office of the Ministry of Health, told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on April 23.

He said that more than 6,600 tents in the earthquake area had been disinfected, and food and water quality secured in most parts of the earthquake zone.

Ren Jie, Director of the Monitoring Department with the Qinghai Provincial Bureau of Environmental Protection, said on April 26 that organic pollutants, nitrogen, toxic elements and electrical conductivity in the water were at safe levels.

Water conductivity is an important test for heavy metal, which is generally harmful to health, Ren said.

Ren also said that due to the low temperatures and level of industrialization, the possibility of an outbreak of infectious disease was small.

From April 15 to 21, an 11-person team sampled six water sources twice a day, and after April 22 the check was performed once a day, Ren said.

The team would continue to monitor water quality and garbage in the earthquake zone to ensure residents' safety, he said.