By Senabri Silvestre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. (AA) – Ecuador is building 18 shelters to accommodate more than 30,000 people who have been left homeless after an earthquake that hit the country last month leaving 660 dead.
Each shelter will accommodate 500 individuals and will provide housing, a recreation area, medical dispensary, dining room and kitchen, Security Minister Cesar Navas said Saturday.
“Some of these shelters are consolidated and others will be ready progressively,” he said during a weekly national broadcast program.
Vice President Jorge Glas urged victims to utilize the shelters instead of facilities that do not provide minimal living conditions.
“These shelters are safe and have containers where citizens can store belongings that have been rescued from their homes, with confidence and security,” he said.
The government is also considering paying bonuses to families that welcome victims of the earthquake. Glas said a proposal will be presented next week to President Rafael Correa.
The armed forces have administrative control of the shelters in the northern coastal provinces of Manabí and Esmeralda, the hardest-hit areas by the April 16 magnitude-7.8 tremor that also left thousands wounded and 17 individuals still reported missing, according to the Risk Management office.
Nearly 7,000 buildings have been destroyed and 560 schools affected, the agency said.
Approximately 720,000 people still need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN which had urged the international community to raise $73 million to help 350,000 people in the weeks and months ahead.
To date, just only 11 percent of the need has been met.
