China says needs 3 million tents for quake homeless

By Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby

BEIJING/CHENGDU (Reuters) - China needs up to 3 million tents to house the estimated 5 million people left homeless by an earthquake that struck on May 12, and is having a hard job finding the equipment, officials said on Tuesday.

Rebuilding will only start once everyone is housed, either in tents, with family or relatives, or in public buildings, said Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Jiang Li, and that could take a long time.

"As this was a huge earthquake that struck suddenly, caused huge casualties and tens of thousands of buildings to collapse, and considering the damage to roads and other facilities, there are still enormous difficulties for and pressure on survivors," she told a news conference.

"The next step will be to proactively consider the issue of reconstruction," she added, but gave no timetable. "This will need a long-term plan."

In Chengdu, capital of the hardest hit province, Sichuan, vice provincial governor Li Chengyun appealed for more tents.

"We're really short of tents. So we hope that other provinces that want to help us and other countries can donate them," he told reporters.

The disaster-hit areas, mainly in Sichuan, have already received 280,000 tents, and factories are working around the clock to deliver another 700,000, Jiang said.

The country may even temporarily ban tent exports, added Pang Chenmin, the ministry's deputy relief work chief.