2015-09-08
Chinese residents whose homes were damaged by massive explosions hold banners to demand compensation from the government in Tianjin, Aug. 19, 2015.
ImagineChina
Residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed in last month’s massive and fatal explosions at a hazardous chemicals warehouse in the northern city of Tianjin say they are having trouble pursuing the authorities over promised compensation payouts.
At least 160 people died on Aug. 12 when the explosions ripped through a hazardous chemicals warehouse in the port area of the city, destroying residential buildings near the epicenter and shattering glass up to five kilometers (three miles) away, according to official media reports.
Thirteen people are still missing, hundreds remain in hospital, and the authorities are still struggling to clean up local pollution after toxic chemicals including sodium cyanide were pumped into the atmosphere by the fire and subsequent blasts.
Some 17,000 households were affected by the damage, but only 9,400 people have signed up for the government’s compensation and repair proposals so far.
Angry homeowners have called for much better terms, and for temporary housing by the government, to no avail, they told RFA on Tuesday.
“There has been a huge outcry among homeowners, a very strong [protest], because they want their money back on their apartments, basically,” a resident of the blast-affected Haigangcheng residential district surnamed Rong said.
“They wonder what happens if something like this happens again, so they are pretty upset,” he said.
“I own a home in the Vanke compound, and the apartments there will basically all be demolished and people will have to move out,” he said.
Rong said the windows in his apartment were all shattered, the furniture upended, and the walls collapsed.
“Most homeowners have already left,” he said, adding that government compensation has only covered “a portion” of their expenses.
He said the government has promised to repurchase the homes in the complex, but that the money has yet to materialize.
Promises of compensation
A resident of nearby Jincheng Lanwan compound said homeowners there have nothing but a verbal promise of compensation from the government to go on so far.
“We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the government, but so far there has been no formal contract signing,” the resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
“It’ll be OK if they keep their promises.”
And a resident of nearby Banjingwan compound, who declined to be named, said the government had only given blast victims three months’ expenses to rent somewhere to stay.
“They have given out 6,000 yuan [U.S. $943] in total, which is 2,000 yuan [U.S. $314] a month, for homeowners to rent somewhere,” the Banjingwan resident said. “We are still waiting to hear if they are buying back our properties or whether they are repairing them.”
“All they have said is that if they do buy them back, it’ll be at 1.3 times the market rate, but they didn’t tell us what their assessment of the market rate was,” she said.
But she declined to comment further. “It’s not convenient for me to talk, partly because I’m at work, but partly for other reasons,” she said. “I can’t say too much.”
