YAO JIN VILLAGE, China - Debris removal from Yao Jin is now in full swing. Yesterday and today we had three trucks working on rotation to haul away rubble and we are definitely making a dent in the sea of destruction.

In just one week, the mountain of debris surrounding the house above was been completely cleared (see below) thanks to the excellent job these machines are doing.

Our site manager, Mr. Xu, arrived yesterday. Today he was in scientist mode and all over the village making calculations. He came over to me in the village today and pointed to his notebook which was filled with math formulas calculating the amount of rubble that needs to be hauled away. Mr. Xu is such a strong asset because he can now work out exactly what machines we need, how many we need and how long they need to work for. This will ensure that we are working at full efficiency.

The latest headlines here are now reporting widespread flooding in southern China. While Sichuan is said to be affected, the region we are in is not. Other than some very heavy rain, there is no flooding. The rains however have delayed some of projects. Some houses left standing in Yao Jin were not demolished over the weekend since the dynamite specialists could not operate in rain. The demolition team has rescheduled for another day this week.

The latrine in Yang Yim village has also been delayed due to the rain but is progressing well nevertheless. The concrete slabs are in place and the walls have started rising. If the rains hold off, it will be finished in the next few days. The water tank repairs in Hedao 2 will also resume when the rain stops.

Tomorrow is a big day for the project as we have our inauguration ceremony for the shower block in Yao Jin. The village water tank is now fully repaired and at full capacity, providing excellent water pressure for the whole village. The hot water tank is also installed and working. We are looking foward to celebrating the ‘ribbon cutting’ with a host of dignitaries, donors, local and major media.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Asia, China Disaster, David Darg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.