World hails China's quake response, reconstruction

Special Report:Reconstruction After Earthquake

by Xinhua writers Gu Zhenqiu, Wang Xiangjiang, Bai
Jie

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The speed,
effectiveness and transparency of China's response to the devastating May 12
earthquake last year are "very impressive," and "very much appreciated by the
international community," the United Nations relief chief said here on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, John Holmes,
the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief
coordinator, said: "What was impressive, I think, was the way the Chinese
authorities, local and centrally, responded to that, the speed with which they
did that, the effectiveness with which they did that and I think also, the
openness, which I think is worth mentioning, which was very much appreciated by
the international community."

The magnitude-8.0 quake that hit southwest China,
including many parts of Sichuan Province, on May 12, 2008 killed more than
69,000 people. It also left nearly 18,000 missing, more than 374,000 injured and
millions homeless.

"This was a huge earthquake with huge repercussions
on the people of the area, both in terms of people killed and injured and of
course the massive destruction of property, residential property, factories,
schools, hospitals," Holmes said. "The impact was absolutely enormous."

As the first anniversary of the massive Wenchuan
earthquake approaches, the message Holmes has for the Chinese government and
people is "one of renewed condolences on the magnitude of the disaster and the
magnitude of the losses that China suffered."

IMPRESSIVE
RESPONSE

"As I say, it was an enormous tragedy and it will
take many years to recover from it fully," Holmes said. "But we were very
impressed by those efforts and by the capacity by the Chinese government has
acquired in terms of responding to disasters, and by the amounts of resources
that China was able to mobilize to deal with this, both in terms of the People's
Liberation Army and other people who were able to help, the amount of efforts
that have gone in since then to actually rebuilding property and so on, and
beginning to establish basic services."

"This was a very impressive operation in a very, very
tragic situation, and we were able to help a little bit," he said. "I don't want
to exaggerate the degree of international help; for example, from the central
fund, we were able to offer 8 million U.S. dollars to help with some of the
immediate aid and assistance, and we are attempting through the UN agencies who
work in China, to help with the recovery and reconstruction process as well."

"As I say, it is a relatively small amount compared
to the overall response from the Chinese authorities but we think it's valuable,
we hope it's appreciated and we want to go on working with you in what will be,
as I say, is a very long-term process of recovery and reconstruction despite the
speed, with which you are tackling it at the moment," he said.

During his recent two-day visit to China, Holmes was
given an account by various government officials and the Chinese earthquake
administration on China's post-quake reconstruction work.

"I think what I was most impressed by was the plans
for rebuilding the permanent housing for the 5 million people or more who were
made homeless by this earthquake," he said. "The idea is within a very short
period of time, within a year or two from now, everybody will have been
re-housed in proper housing. That is an enormous task but clearly that's the
ambition the government has set for itself, and I have no doubt with China's
capacity to mobilize resources, to mobilize people, and to galvanize activity,
that's what will happen."

On April 22, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu met
with visiting Holmes, and Hui said that China has made remarkable progress in
enhancing its risk management and disaster reduction capabilities. This is a
great contribution to the global humanitarian cause.

GOOD EXAMPLE FROM
CHINA

"China, unfortunately for you, is a very
disaster-prone country," Holmes said. "It is so enormous you have virtually
every threat that we know about and every given year there are bound to be
several significant disasters."

"That means you have acquired an enormous amount of
experience, sadly, in dealing with disasters, but you've also come to recognize,
earlier, I think than many others, the value of reducing the impact of those
disasters before they happen," he said.

"A very good example is the work that's been done on
China's main rivers in trying to reduce the impact of the flooding, which is
going to happen in one way or another virtually every year, and some years can
be extremely bad," he said.

"We believe that China set a good example there
because this is a demonstration that money invested in those kinds of measures
is a good investment," he said. "It brings benefits, it saves lives, it reduces
damage and that's a better investment than money simply spent afterwards on
responding to disaster after it has happened."

"I think that's an absolutely crucial lesson to the
world," he said. "We face more and more disasters, natural disasters in the
future, not least because of climate change, which is going to produce more
floods and more hurricanes and more droughts in different areas, for example."

"Therefore, disaster risk reduction will be even more
important in the future than it is now," he said. "As I say, China has a lot of
experience to offer, has a lot of practical lessons to offer other people, and
we hope China will play a very central role in discussing this at international
levels."