The United Nations (UN) yesterday appealed to the international community to contribute $33.5 million to boost aid for victims of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan province on May 12.

The money will be used in areas of disaster relief such as shelter, health, nutrition and sanitation, the UN said.

"It is the hope of the United Nations and the international community that China will quickly recover from this enormous tragedy," Khalid Malik, the UN Resident Coordinator in China, said at the launch of the appeal.

The 8.0-magnitude quake has claimed about 70,000 lives and affected more than 40 million people.

It also damaged 21 million buildings in Sichuan province and the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

The three provinces have been ranked among the poorest in China and reconstruction in the quake zones, led mainly by the government, is expected to take about three years.

"If you think of the more than 5 million people left homeless, the 5 million-odd buildings that collapsed, the 10 million people pushed back into poverty - the needs are massive," Malik said.

Malik also praised the Chinese government's willingness to allow international participation in recovery and reconstruction efforts for the quake, with the belief that all stakeholders would speed up their coordination of the work.

"The scale is so large that there is no duplication at all," he said.

In the following months, 14 UN agencies will work on the targeted areas of reconstruction with their Chinese counterparts to address the needs of survivors who have received basic assistance but require more comprehensive aid, as the help gets under way and before winter sets in.

"The UN will focus on knowledge accessibility and technical assistance to help carry out reconstruction better and faster," Malik said.

The UN has already provided more than $17 million in assistance, of which $8 million came from its Central Emergency Response Fund for humanitarian relief immediately after the earthquake, he said.

It used the experience it gathered from aid for major disasters such as the Pakistan quake in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 to assist China in its recovery from the May 12 tremor.

On Tuesday, the UN also concluded a two-day international workshop in Beijing on post-disaster reconstruction practices.

The meeting brought together leading experts from across the world, who shared their own experiences and lessons learned in disaster reconstruction in their respective countries. Following its latest appeal, the UN said it is also planning for a longer-term reconstruction program with the authorities.

(China Daily July 17, 2008)