Sichuan Earthquake - China The 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, killing over 68,000 people in Sichuan province and leaving millions homeless. The earthquake devastated infrastructure and halted economic development in the region. As an LEDC, Sichuan struggled with rebuilding due to limited resources and frequent damaging aftershocks, requiring extensive foreign aid and government spending to reconstruct damaged buildings and infrastructure and help the displaced population recover. The earthquake set back development goals for the province and country.

1. Sichuan Earthquake - China By Amelia Behrens

2. Sichuan and China… The Province of Sichuan is in South West China with it’s own capital in Chengdu. China is an LEDC (less economically developed country) but is also an NIC (newly industrialising country). In the West of Sichuan there is a Mountain that is 7,556 metres above sea level and the land gradually slopes downwards from the north west to the south east. There are also 1,300 rivers in total that provide navigation and water power to the rest of Sichuan. Because of such things, Sichuan gets many tourists, which was helping it to become more industrialised, however after the earthquake very few people wanted to visit Sichuan, so the economy went down, thus affecting the development of the province.

3. The Earthquake Itself… The Province of Sichuan was hit by an earthquake that measured 7.8 (roughly) on the Richter scale at its epicentre on the 12th of May 2008. Official figures on the 21 July 2008 confirmed there had been 69,197 deaths due to the earthquake (68,636 in the Sichuan Province itself) and 374,179 injured with 18,222 listed as missing. It stated that the earthquake had left 4.8 million people homeless, however the reality was there could have been up to 11 million people homeless, which considering that only 15 million people lived in the affected area before, is a huge number. Strong aftershocks, some measured as high as 6.0, continued to hit the area even months after the earthquake, meaning that as soon as Sichuan started to pick themselves up again the aftershocks would occur and destroy things.

4. Immediate Aftermath… Office building in Sichuan were evacuated, along with hotels and airports being evacuated also. Although none of the Summer Olympic venues were damaged, the building in which the Olympic media and organisation team were situated was cracked and the people in it also had to be evacuated Many houses and businesses were damaged and/or fell to the ground leaving many people homeless jobless of even crushed by the rubble In the middle of the Earthquake, a cargo train carrying 13 petrol tanks derailed, and caught fire, distorting the railway and making it impossible to escape by train, and as airports had been closed, people were trapped. In Beichuan county about 80% of all buildings, including both business and residential, collapsed, and in the city of Shifang, 2 chemical plants led to the leakage of ammonia, which is toxic. Finally many schools around Sichuan collapsed burying and killing teenagers and children.

5. Long term consequences… Even after the strong aftershocks stopped the effect of the earthquake didn’t disappear. Re-building had to take place as many buildings were damaged or destroyed by the quake and the various other things that followed such as the aftershocks and the quake lakes However this building would take time, meaning that the government would have to pay for shelter and food for the people left homeless or unemployed until construction was finished As well as the money needed for temporary shelters, the government had to pay for the building to start in this first place, as they had to supply materials and builders in order to get it underway. All in all, the government of Sichuan/China had to make large payments just to re build material things whereas the people of Sichuan had to re-build their lives

6. Government Response… The Chinese government responded quickly and well to the earthquake by appealing for money from other nations and by paying to set up temporary shelters and hospitals whilst they paid for new homes and buildings to be built The state council in Sichuan also tried to help by setting up a special group for the post disaster reconstruction who aimed to complete reconstruction 3 months after the earthquake had struck, however six months after the earthquake had hit re building was still going on despite the promise made by the team. The Chinese government also allowed a certain amount of media coverage on the quake which is are in China. They did this to increase awareness of the disaster and to get people to donate and help which it did and proved successful.

7. Beijing Olympics… During the earthquake, despite the Olympic journalists and media coverage workers having to be evacuated none of the stadiums or venues suffered any damage to them. However the Beijing Olympics had a direct effect on the clean up responses after the earthquake had struck. This is because a lot of the country’s money had been spent on improving facilities and building venues for the Olympic games, meaning that there was very little money left to be spent on recovery when the earthquake had hit Sichuan. This meant that China and Sichuan had to lend themselves heavily to aid until the Olympics had happened and they had received money back from it. This meant that China had to open itself up to other countries to get the aid, displaying human rights issues and making some people consider boycotting the Olympic games.

8. Development Effects… Sichuan is in China an LEDC meaning it was already behind on the development side of things compared to many other countries, however is was catching up due to it becoming a newly industrialising country. But the earthquake brought with it destruction that needed to be cleared up, but this had to be done through paying out money. If the earthquake hadn’t have struck the money that was spent on putting together the pieces would not have had to have been spent meaning that China and Sichuan could have used it elsewhere on improving development. This halted Sichuan's development and put them even further behind on the development ‘race’. Also the aftershocks meant that it was impossible to restore things back to normal as as soon as they started to rebuild an aftershock would occur and set them back to square one, which required even more money.

9. The Fact it was an LEDC… Sichuan struggled more with the situation than places such as America etc would have if it had happened to them, due to the fact that it is an LEDC. This means that it had less money and was less developed in the first place making it hard to re build afterwards. As they had little money they had to rely on emergency aid, which would only have helped them in the short term, and after it had happened they would be stuck again. Either that or they would have had to take out loans, which they would have had to pay back in the long term. Also, the little money the country did have could have been spent on improving development, however it had to be spent on rebuilding, and as they had little money the buildings that were re built could have been of lesser quality than the originals, so if an earthquake struck again there would be even more damage.

10. The End Thank you for watching By Amelia Behrens