PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 19 August, 2015, 1:14pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 19 August, 2015, 1:58pm
Injured residents evacuated from their home after last week's blasts in Tianjin show a picture on their phone of their damaged property during Wednesday's protest rally. Photo: Reuters
The number of angry Tianjin homeowners protesting outside a government press conference doubled to about a hundred on Wednesday morning as grievances in the blast-hit city continue to grow.
Residents evacuated from their homes after last week's deadly blasts in Tianjin take part in a protest rally in the city on Wednesday. Photo: ReutersThey have become worried by the government’s efforts to repair their apartments located in Harbour City, an area close to the site of last week’s deadly blasts in the city’s port area, which have killed at least 114 people.
Read more: 4 big questions Chinese people want answered following deadly Tianjin blasts
They have demanded compensation and asked the government to buy back flats damaged in the blasts.
Watch: protests by angry Tianjin homeowners grow following deadly blasts
“No repairing! Buy our houses!” they shouted.
The homeowners fear that the government will declare their houses safe to live in once they have completed the repairs.
“They are the ones that gave a pass to the warehouse,” said one man called Wang, who lives in Harbour City, less than 1km from the blast site.
“Can we believe them about the repair work?”
The owners learned that repair process had started only from a news report by state broadcaster CCTV. They were not informed that work had begun before then.
Xinhua news agency reported that initial investigations had revealed that at least 17,500 houses suffered damage to their windows and doors following the blasts. By Monday more than 700 of these properties had undergone repairs.
City officials have set up temporary shelters in 12 schools and three residential complexes, which can house up to 15,000 people.
Hundreds of residents displaced since the deadly blasts have been supplied with food, medication and daily necessities.
Police have been accompanying residents back to their homes in seven of the seriously affected areas to pick up what is left of their belongings.
Wang said he was concerned that the government would not carry out a careful safety assessment of the areas damaged buildings. “I hope the owners will be able to take part in any assessment,” Wang said. “The government has no credibility now.”
The homeowners said they would never feel safe living in the area while there were other warehouses still storing dangerous chemicals near their properties, including a warehouse of hazardous chemicals owned by Sinochem Group, which lies about 3 km from Harbour City.
The protest was largely peaceful with dozens of police standing watching nearby.
At least 3,000 tonnes of chemicals – including 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide – were in the warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics, where the two blasts occurred on August 12.
“I can’t live there, but I’m still paying mortgage,” an owner surnamed Pei, 29, said of his house that he had bought following his marriage. Besides the mortgage, his family now also needed to pay the rent – fees that could not be completely covered by the government’s 2,000 yuan monthly compensation for those owners who have lost their homes.
“We planned to have a child by this year,” Pei said. “Now it seems impossible.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1850768/protests-among-angry-tianjin-homeowners-grow-chinese-government
