Housing concerns mount for 5 mln China quake refugees

By Lucy Hornby

GUANGYUAN COUNTY, China (Reuters) - Five million Chinese displaced by last week's earthquake will be in temporary homes for months as devastated Sichuan province shifts from emergency response to housing refugees for the long term.

Local officials say their most pressing issue now is housing.

Leaky tarpaulins and crowded sports stadiums could soon tax the patience of bored and grieving refugees, while a steady diet of instant noodles and cookies is starting to take a toll on health.

"We had 40,000 people living under tarps in Guangyuan last night. But tarps aren't enough in the wind and rain," said Lu Lujun, of the Guangyuan propaganda bureau, as he welcomed journalists at the county checkpoint.

"We need tents, tarps, rice, cooking oil. Oh, and cooking utensils. You can't cook without that."

Neat camps of blue tents are being set up on any flat, open space along the Longmenshan fault, which slashes through the mountains of northeastern Sichuan province. The fault is still delivering regular aftershocks, creating new landslides that keep many towns and villages inaccessible.

Makeshift tarps and woven mats line the mountain roads throughout Guangyuan, where relatively few rural people were killed but nearly every house is uninhabitable.

Soldiers are going up every mountain path to check on inhabitants, but villagers must still walk for hours to the supply depots in towns to take back rice and instant noodles.