Hundreds still wait for promised housing, aid months later
If you were a natural disaster victim and had to beg your government for months to get compensation for your flooded house, you would not name a street after your president and prime minister, right? Wrong.
Residents of two villages in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast did just that to thank these two national leaders for dealing with the aftermath of disaster. True enough, this particular region was the luckiest of all and most of the promises for compensations were delivered. But even the president agreed the honor was undeserved.
“The government has not yet done enough to report success,” Victor Yushchenko wrote in a letter addressing Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast residents in November, reacting to the civic initiative. Hundreds of flood victims in five out of six affected regions are still waiting for new housing and financial aid while reconstruction of destroyed bridges, roads and other elements of infrastructure are far from being complete. The deadline set by the government to construct new housing was Nov. 15, or nearly four months after the July disaster that claimed lives of 30 people and damaged or destroyed 40,000 homes.
However, construction is unfinished. The local governments of affected regions promised to finish all housing construction by Dec. 10. The government estimated total property damages in excess of $1 billion. More than 30,000 hectares of agricultural land was submerged. Nearly 700 kilometers of roadways and over 900 bridges were ruined.
Far from finishing the cleanup and reconstruction, the National Security Council of Ukraine said Nov. 7 that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s government was “inefficient” at dealing with the disaster, saying there was little coordination between the central government and local authorities. On top of that, damage was underestimated, which resulted in delays in compensation and reconstruction, said Roman Bezsmertniy, deputy chief of the president’s administration.
“I’m eating dry food. There is no place for cooking. The gas supply is blocked and the gas stove was damaged by water. I am buying water for Hr 9 per bottle, I live in a garage, it is cold and wet,” said Tamara Khusianova from Mohyliv-Podilskiy, a town in Vinnytsya Oblast. Khusianova received only Hr 30,000 from the Hr 50,000 she was promised. She still lacks money to repair her house that was completely ruined.
Tymoshenko denied allegations of poor performance, telling the media that if flood victims have not received their money, “the regional and local authorities are to blame.” However, her government made an urgent announcement that an additional Hr 114.5 million was allocated to Chernivtsi Oblast Nov. 4 for compensation and construction works the day Yushchenko returned from his inspection of the region. Tymoshenko said local governments have yet to spend Hr 600 million that the Cabinet transferred to their accounts.
But local officials claimed they lacked money to pay cash compensations and complete reconstruction. To finish all works in flooded regions some additional Hr 1.7 billion is needed, said the presidential ally Bezsmertniy after meeting with local officials on Nov. 26. “The government gave money according to calculations made during the first days of the disaster while detailed analysis conducted later showed that more funds are needed,” said Ihor Markovskiy, a spokesman for Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast state administration.
His oblast seems to be the only one where the government actually fully compensated the victims. Markovskiy said construction of 75 new homes was completed in time for people to move in by the Nov. 15 deadline. New owners will also be provided with furniture, fridges, washing machines and even new dishware, he added.
Progress in restoring infrastructure is significant, but construction work is planned to be finished next year. “More time is needed for restoring several infrastructure objects so that work is performed in high quality,” Markovskiy said.
Other regions were not so lucky. Officials in Chernivtsi Oblast complained that they lack Hr 124 million to pay out compensation to victims and Hr 350 million required for infrastructure work.
According to a government directive, victims are eligible to receive from Hr 10,000 to 50,000 depending on the extent of damages. In Chernivtsi Oblast, only 60 percent of 6,210 homes have been repaired or newly built, Yushchenko said during his visit to the region.
In Zakarpattya Oblast, the Cabinet has provided only Hr 28 million of the required Hr 139.5 million to restore ruined roads, said Oleh Havashi, head of the Oblast administration. “The same with compensating lost property. There is not a single suffered family to which the government doesn’t owe more than half of funds,” he said.
Bezsmertniy said it was not just the Cabinet that was to blame. Zakarpattya is behind with compensations partially because Hr 80 million given for the cleanup was misused. He failed to provide details.
Vinnytska Oblast received Hr 25 million for compensation but still needs Hr 35 million to finish the relief work, according to Iryna Kotelnyk, Vinnytska Oblast governors’ spokeswoman. Reconstruction in the region is 90 percent complete. A bridge, medical college and a school still need to be rebuilt.
Lviv Oblast appears to be in better shape. According to Oleksiy Tytarenko, head of the emergency services department of Lviv Oblast, flood victims have received Hr 79.2 million and all educational buildings have been fully restored. However, bridges, hospitals, roads and dams have yet to be completed.
Ivano-Frankivsk’s Markovskiy predicted that local governments will ask for more funds to cover their rising costs. “Prices for construction materials will rise because of the economic crisis and more money to finish construction will be needed,” he said.
