Post-quake resettlement areas given a major facelift

"Only one year ago, trash could be seen everywhere in the village, with six centralized resettlement areas that were built after the Lushan earthquake," said villager Li Lianqiang.

With the epicenter in Longmen, the magnitude 7.0 Lushan earthquake on April 20, 2013 destroyed scattered residences of farmers in Qinglongchang and other villages in the county.

With the backing of governments at different levels, 232 centralized resettlement areas with brand-new houses were built for farmers within three years after the quake.

But nobody took charge in disposal of trash, public security or settlement of residents' disputes in the centralized resettlement areas, for there were no property management firms.

With guidance from the Ya'an municipal and Lushan county governments, each centralized resettlement area started setting up a self-management committee last year.

"Each committee consists of three to seven public-spirited members who were chosen from residents of a centralized resettlement area. They are in charge of sanitation, public security, fire prevention and settlement of disputes," said Wu Yaming, deputy chief of the law committee of the standing committee of the Ya'an Municipal People's Congress.

To keep the committees operating, the Ya'an municipal and Lushan county governments provide subsidies while residents of the committees pay a certain amount of money.

"It's worth paying the management fee, for our village is much cleaner," Li said.

Jin Zhaoxiang, 72, of Qiao'aixin village in Siyan township in Lushan, echoed his comment.

"Chickens used to walk wantonly and droppings of domestic animals were ubiquitous in the village. Thanks to the self-management committee, the village is very clean," Jin said.

According to Jin, members of the committee would visit residents' homes and chat with them to spread information on sanitation.

If disputes arise from neighbors, they would invite the neighbors' good friends in the village to visit the neighbors with them, finding the source of the disputes to get a solution.

The self-management committee in Qin's village has also organized classes to teach residents cooking, sewing and electric welding skills, which can help them find jobs in Ya'an and outside the city.

To standardize management of the self-management committees, the standing committee of the Ya'an Municipal People's Congress formulated the Regulation on Management of Centralized Resettlements. The regulation was approved by the standing committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress on March 29.

"The regulation to be implemented on July 20 has clarified the responsibility of the self-management committees as well as management methods of the centralized resettlement areas," Wu said.

The regulation was the first local law formulated by the standing committee of the Ya'an Municipal People's Congress after Ya'an was approved by the standing committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress to have local legislative power in December 2015.

"It's believed to be conducive to the formulating of local post-disaster reconstruction laws in other parts of the country," Wu said.