Chinese authorities are now reporting that more than 120,000 people -- twice their previous estimate -- were affected in the deadly earthquake that shook the region in January and killed at least 126 people.
Previously, they had said 60,000 were affected by the 7.1-magnitude quake struck that Jan. 7 in Dingri county of Shigatse prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region, close to the border with Nepal.
The increase suggests that damage from the quake was more extensive than previously reported.
The higher figure came out at a ceremony in Gurum village in Dingri county to commemorate that China has begun rebuilding eight villages heavily damaged in the quake. Authorities said they aimed to relocate over 120,000 displaced residents into new homes by the end of the year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the official death toll remains at 126 people killed, with no updates since Jan. 8, but Tibetan sources have told Radio Free Asia that the toll was likely higher, given that at least 100 people were killed in the town of Dramtso alone.
Most of the villages will be rebuilt in the same place, except for those that were located on the earthquake belt or in areas prone to landslides or floods, state media reported. Those villages will have to be built anew in a different location.
Transparency concerns
Experts and rights groups are concerned about transparency issues and fear that corruption could be present in the reconstruction efforts.
“Given the Chinese government’s previous record of forced relocations, we will be watching for information to see if these relocations are voluntary,” Maya Wang, the Associate China Director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, told RFA Tibetan.
“Right now we do not know, and it’s unclear if we will ever find out, given the authorities’ tight restrictions on information.”
Wang urged the Chinese government to provide “unfettered access” to independent researchers and observers in the area so they can verify the human rights situation on the ground.
Bhuchung Tsering, head of the Research and Monitoring Unit at the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, welcomed the news of the start of efforts to rehabilitate those affected.
But he added that it is difficult to get a clear understanding of the actual data and population of those affected as we can only rely on what the Chinese government announces.
He further stated that it’s important to ensure that the housing reconstruction project in Dingri doesn’t experience the same “corruption issues” that occurred during disaster relief efforts following the deadly 2010 earthquake in Sichuan province.
In that magnitude-6.9 quake, nearly 3,000 people died.
“It’s hard to predict why they have revised the numbers,” Kalpit Mankikar, China fellow at the New Delhi, India-based Observer Research Foundation, told RFA Tibetan.
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“But they are going to construct many more houses. I see this as a kind of a justification to create more houses to push the infrastructure,” he said. “But who uses these houses is a matter of big conjecture,”
“Will it be Tibetans who live there? Or will they get the people from the mainland, or from other provinces to move in?”
Mankikar said that one way to kickstart China’s ailing economy is to build houses and invest in infrastructure, and that this might be the reason why China is eager to rebuild.
Chinese-style homes?
Tenzin Norgay, a Research Analyst at ICT, told RFA that he worried the plan to put so many people into new homes before the end of the year might not be feasible, that the quickly built homes might ignore Tibetan customs and traditional architecture, and that relocated residents might be moved more remote areas.
He pointed out that after the 2010 Sichuan earthquake, the new homes reflected a Chinese-style design, which deeply disappointed Tibetans.
A total of 79 schools in Dingri county suffered various degrees of damage during the quake in January, but all 79 were able to resume classes on Wednesday, the first day of the new semester..
Of the 79, some 76 schools satisfactorily met safety standards after they were repaired, state media said. The remaining three schools, however need to be completely reconstructed, so the 1,479 students attending those schools were able to transfer to four other schools ahead of the new semester.
Additional reporting by Tenzin Dickyi and Tashi Wangchuk. Edited by Tenzin Pema, Eugene Whong, and Malcolm Foster.