A year ago, the post-earthquake rescue here was faced with "different days". Now, they are also experiencing another reconstruction experience. On both sides of the Yaodu Bridge, the construction of Yujiawan Primary School, which started in December last year, has been "stop and go".

" Half a year later, bulldozers are still digging and leveling the ground.

On the other side, Yaodu Middle School, whose foundation was laid early this year, has already reached its second floor.

Yujiawan belongs to Wenxian County of Gansu Province, and Yaodu belongs to Qingchuan of Sichuan Province, separated only by the Baishui River.

In the eyes of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this is more like a reconstruction competition across the Taiwan Strait, although the leaders are unwilling to admit it.

A year ago, after the "5.12" earthquake, the people in Sichuan and Gansu experienced the "different days" of rescue from both sides of the river. The disaster in Wenxian County was once underestimated and ignored (for details, see "

Wen County, Gansu: An underestimated earthquake disaster" Southern Weekend, May 22, 2008).

Nowadays, the inertia of comparison among the people continues. Some people in Yujiawan came over to reporters when they saw it and said that the reconstruction here is "very slow" compared to the other side.

In Bikou Town under Wen County, most of the houses collapsed or were severely damaged due to the earthquake, and residents still live in dilapidated houses or tents by the Baishui River.

“Build while shaking” But the reality is that the reconstruction of rural areas in Wen County is no less rapid than that in Sichuan.

Ding Xingwen, deputy director of the county's Construction Bureau, said that on July 10, 2008, their first batch of key villages had started construction.

A local official said that the experience of the earthquake being underestimated somewhat stimulated the "eagerness for reconstruction" of superior leaders.

As evidence, Longnan City in Gansu Province, where Wen County is located, announced in July last year that it would fully complete post-disaster reconstruction tasks within two years.

Sichuan was half a year late in proposing the same goal.

Zhang Hong, the county magistrate of Wenxian County, once expressed concern to Xinhua News Agency reporters that post-disaster reconstruction is a complex systematic project that takes "three years and two years", which actually condenses the system and brings many challenges to local governments.

The cost of emergency start-up is insufficient planning and justification.

An official in charge of reconstruction admitted that they were "planning while recovering." Wen County's post-disaster recovery and reconstruction master plan was "just the work of a few people from the unit."

passive".

Perhaps the most straightforward example is the relative lag in road construction.

National Highway 212, the "lifeline" that runs through Wenxian County from north to south, was severely damaged by the earthquake. Traffic jams occur almost every day, seriously affecting the transportation of reconstruction materials from other places.

It was not until eight months after the reconstruction began that the "upgrading and reconstruction" construction of this road started.

Wenxian County officials said, "National highways cannot be controlled by cities and counties."

It is also difficult to advance the reconstruction progress in an orderly manner.

The 123 redevelopment villages in Wen County were originally planned to be constructed in three batches. However, Du Xiaobin, deputy director of the Reconstruction Office, discovered that “the batches were all in chaos.”

At the end of last year, almost all the reconstruction households in Zhongmiao Township had started construction.

After "5.12", aftershocks continued. The two largest ones in May and August last year caused heavy damage to Wen County, which is closest to Qingchuan.

But this has not stopped it from accelerating the pace of reconstruction. The above-mentioned official said with a smile, "We are building as we shake."

There was some opposition at one time, and a cadre of a township in Zhongmiao Township confirmed that after the aftershocks in August last year, some victims collectively requested to postpone the construction. The township government therefore reported to the county government, hoping to "postpone it a little."

Worried about the quality of the project, villagers in Qingshuiping Village, which was built with assistance from Shenzhen, also blocked construction for a time.

Yang Deming, the village director, still remembers it vividly. He said that the new village that was built with assistance was right on the bank of the fast-flowing Baishui River. The construction company entered too early and evened out the foundation but did not pull sand at the designated place. The foundation must not be carelessly laid.

Waiting for materials, waiting for craftsmen. The embarrassing situation has not been avoided by the determination of reconstruction. At least for now, the reconstruction progress is gradually slowing down due to multiple pressures such as funds, prices and transportation.

The proliferation of reconstruction projects caused a shortage of building materials in Wenxian County, especially bricks. Even Lianfeng Village, a project supported by the government and aided by Shenzhen, was delayed for ten days due to lack of bricks.

Now, there is still a serious shortage of machine bricks.

A month ago, Wenxian County, Gansu Province organized an inspection on the county's rural reconstruction situation. It was found that about 1/5 of the new houses had become "half-finished" projects and were in a state of "waiting for materials."

Gui Jinquan, director of Daduba Village, just got 30,000 bricks, half a year after he set up a base.

"Even the worst-fired bricks can't be pulled out." He said that bricks from the local brick factory have been reserved until the end of the year.

The construction team hired by Gui Jinquan from Suining, Sichuan, contracted the reconstruction project of six households in the village, including his own. Four households had to stop work due to lack of bricks, and the workers had to temporarily return to Sichuan.

In the whole village, 30% of the reconstruction households are still "waiting for materials."

Tight supply and demand have caused prices to rise.

In addition to steel bars, the prices of cement and machine bricks have more than doubled compared to before the earthquake.

Wen County Price Bureau has no choice but to implement temporary price intervention policies for building materials such as bricks, cement, and steel bars.

But the “visible hand” of the government seems to be no match for the “invisible hand” of the market.

Not long ago, the County Price Bureau issued fines to three local brick factories - their ex-factory prices were too high, but it was difficult to obtain evidence.