Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News

THE death toll from the May 12 earthquake in southwest China was expected to exceed 80,000, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said yesterday.

It was the first official acknowledgement that many still listed as missing are dead.

By noon Monday, 69,181 had been confirmed dead, with 374,171 injured and 18,498 listed as missing, Hui said in a report on relief and reconstruction at the opening of the third session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

"Quite a large number of those missing may have died," he said.

"The May 12 earthquake epicentered in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, was the most destructive earthquake which affected the widest area and posed the biggest challenge to rescue operations, since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949," Hui said.

The vice premier admitted the disaster-relief work had been arduous.

He said the quake had affected 47,789 villages, with a total disaster zone of 440,000 square kilometers. It had affected 46.24 million people.

Since the main quake, 13,685 aftershocks has been detected, with five measuring above 6.0 on the Richter scale, 28 ranging from 5.0 to 5.9 and 189 from 4.0 to 4.9.

Hui said the relief work was difficult because most of the worst-hit areas were in mountains or deep valleys. The destruction of roads and communication links had also prevented rescue staff and facilities getting into the quake zone quickly.

He said 7.79 million houses had collapsed, with another 24.59 million damaged. The county seat of Beichuan and Yingxiu Township had been almost leveled, he said.

The quake had cut 16 major arteries and six railways and paralyzed power supply, telecom and water supply in large areas.

Secondary disasters had caused further damage, with frequent landslides and mud-rock flows. Landslides had blocked rivers and formed 35 quake lakes, with dangers of various degrees reported in 2,473 reservoirs, he said.

The operation of 6,443 enterprises had ceased or been suspended and 44.62 million head of livestock and poultry had died, Hui said.

No epidemics or mass food poisoning had been reported because of prompt sanitation measures, he said.

Hui said sheltering survivors and preventing epidemics and secondary disasters remained prominent problems.

Other major challenges included restoring normal life for quake-affected people and reconstruction in the quake-hit zone, he said, stressing that more help was needed for the employment of survivors.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, tabled at yesterday's NPC session a budget amendment to establish a reconstruction fund.

Hui said 40 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) from the fund would be dedicated to subsidize the rebuilding and repair of farmers' homes.

Finance Minister Xie Xuren said the government would allocate 70 billion yuan this year to establish the fund.

Sixty billion yuan would come from a 103.2-billion-yuan special fund aimed at stabilizing the central budget, 5 billion from vehicle purchase tax, 1 billion from the welfare lottery fund and 4 billion from the state-owned assets operations budget.