Earthquacke emergency in China

June 9th, 2008

After some meetings with the authorities of the Civil Affair, Pingwu County, in the Prefecture of Mianyang City – where the Italian Civil Protection has realized one of its first interventions - has been identified as the principal area to realize filed assessment and to plan direct emergency interventions.
Here the casualty toll for the quake is 3,000 people killed, 181,000 homeless people displaced, 2,500 people missing and more than 30,000 people injured. At the moment, 375 homeless centres have been set up all over the County.
ASIA has been thus decided to operate in one of the three most heavily-damaged townships and, precisely, in Nanba; the intervention will be then extended to the left 2 townships (Pintong and Shuiguang).

The township itself is located on the shores of a river surrounded by mountains, at an average altitude of 800 m and it has been almost completely destroyed. According to the government, 1,300 people have been reported dead and 700 missing; but, according to off-the-record sources, the amount could easily higher.
The communication routes have been completely interrupted. The army took 13 days to build up an alternative landline and to clear the way from landslides and stones.

In coordination with the person in charge of the relief intervention in the Pingwu County, ASIA has distributed, between the 26th and the 30th of May, 9 tons of rice and 3 tons of cooking oil (the daily ratio per capita is 500 g of rice and 50 g of oil).
The action, slowed down by some landslips and landslides, has been monitored directly by ASIA personnel, who has handed the aids to those in charge of the camps, verified their distribution to the families and collected the distribution certifications.

In the next weeks we foresee to pursue the relief operations with the aim to:
- Satisfy the basic food needs for 6,000 (1.500 families) displaced people victims of the earthquake for a period of three months, with the distribution of rice, oilseeds and basic cooking kits;
- Improve the shelter situation of the beneficiaries also in consideration of the difficulties related to the season (monsoon season), with the distribution of tarpaulins, mattress, blankets, mosquito nets;
- Improve the hygienic and health conditions, with the distribution of kit of chlorine tablets for safe water and related brochures with instructions for their correct use, water plastic jerry-cans to collect water, basic hygienic kits

We offer all our experience gathered over years of emergency work in Tibet, but we need funds immediately in order to face this very severe humanitarian emergency.

Help us to support the rescue operations for the population in Sichuan:

• You can DONATE ONLINE immediately

• Or by Bank transfer to:

> Donation for: “Earthquake Emergency in China”

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