Rucheng
County, in Hunan Province, is just one of the hundreds of areas
devastated by Bilis and Kaemi – two of several powerful
storms, which have battered southern China in recent weeks.
The storms did not just change the landscape, they also destroyed
people’s homes and livelihoods.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,
together with the Red Cross Society of China, recently made
an assessment in the area and are now focusing their activities
on helping vulnerable families rebuild their homes.
This will be done in coordination with local officials by reinforcing
people’s own rehabilitation efforts. Emergency relief
items, including food, tents and blankets, were distributed
in the region immediately following the disasters.
So far, the International Federation has distributed rice to
around 240,000 people in five provinces, along with 1,300 family
tents and 30,000 quilts.
Under the best of circumstances, the mountainous area of Hunan
Province can be difficult to access but the storms, which caused
severe damage to roads and infrastructure, have made the situation
even worse.
The total population of Rucheng County is 360,000, of which
259,000 people were affected by Bilis and Kaemi. In Lingxiu
Township alone, 342 houses out of 2,615 were destroyed by floods
and landslides. As a result, poor farmers and their families
were left with nowhere to live. Plastic sheeting now serves
as the walls and ceilings for their temporary homes.
This year’s unusually frequent and ferocious storms have
delivered a final blow to the region’s crops, which have
been yielding less and less over the past five years. The floods
have also damaged large swathes of farmland, wiping some of
them out for good.
The country’s ministry of civil affairs reports that more
than 32 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed by
natural disasters in China this year. At the same time, millions
of people have been displaced and some five million homes have
been damaged or destroyed since May.
Lingxiu Township is home to the Yao people, one of China’s
most marginalised minority groups.
The Yao have preserved their ancient traditions and way of life
by remaining in their close-knit communities and villages. As
a result, they are largely unequipped to deal with the culture
shock and potential stigma they would face if they were to seek
work in the big cities.
They are also among some of the vulnerable groups that the International
Federation is working to help following the devastating typhoons
and tropical storms.
Liu Xunsheng and his family, who live in Liaotian Village in
Hengnan County, lost everything when their house was washed
away by flash floods. Most of the buildings destroyed by the
storms were built out of mud and timber – only brick houses
were strong enough to withstand the force of rushing water,
rocks and soil.
“We have no roof to sleep under and I don’t know
how I’m going to feed my family,” he says. “There
is hardly anything left of our rice fields, and our pigs were
lost in the floods, too.”
The prospect of building a new house on his own seems highly
unlikely, since Liu Xunsheng’s family and friends are
also very poor and cannot afford to lend him any money.
The average annual income in Lingxiu Township is just over 1,000
RMB ($125 USD/€ 98) per person. To build a new house would
cost around 30,000 RMB – a sum far beyond the means of
most local residents.
This is why the International Federation’s emergency appeal
aims to help 1,200 of the most vulnerable families living in
Hunan, including Liu Xunsheng’s, to rebuild their homes.
Meanwhile, thanks to support for the appeal from the Japanese
and Swedish Red Cross Societies, some 260 families are expected
to receive reconstruction assistance in Lingxiu Township.
The rebuilding of new houses will also be partly financed by
the government, which has promised to help people raise loans
from the bank. But for many poor farmers, this will not be enough
to cover the cost of a new house so the International Federation
plans to provide them with additional assistance.
All sites, plans and construction materials for new houses are
subject to approval by the government, which has also pledged
to build roads and provide electricity and water to the new
reconstruction sites.
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Destroyed
rice field in Rucheng County, in the Hunan Province of
China. The storms did not just change the landscape, they
also destroyed people’s homes and livelihoods. (p14534)
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Liu
Xunsheng and his family, who live in Liaotian Village
in Hengnan County, lost everything when their house was
washed away by flash floods. (p14532)
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Most
of the buildings destroyed by the storms were built out
of mud and timber – only brick houses were strong
enough to withstand the force of rushing water, rocks
and soil. (p14533)
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