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Mexico appropriates $248 mn for reconstruction after quakes
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IANS | 29 Sep, 2017
The Mexican government approved
on Thursday the release of roughly $248 million to begin the task of
rebuilding after the earthquakes that left 445 people dead.
The
amount of money already spent responding to the massive temblors of
September 7 and September 19 and the major aftershock of September 23 is
likely in the area of $110 million, Finance Secretary Jose Antonio
Meade said.
President Enrique Peña Nieto said that the total
bill for reconstruction in the areas of central and southern Mexico
devastated by the quakes is expected to exceed $2.12 billion. Efe
reported.
Officials still don't know how much of that amount will
be covered by insurance, Meade said, though adding that the government
will probably have "a much clearer idea" of the situation within the
next two weeks.
Housing represents the biggest challenge, Meade
said a day after Development Secretary Rosario Robles put the number of
Mexicans forced from their homes by the earthquakes at more than
250,000.
The government will provide a detailed blueprint
enabling the public to track where and how money is spent, Meade said,
adding that his department will update the information on a real-time
basis.
As if to underscore Meade's point about transparency,
residents of a Mexico City housing complex damaged in the September 19
earthquake said that municipal officials are failing to keep them
informed about the condition of their homes and the plans for
reconstruction.
The city administration has not offered any
details about Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera's strategy, the assembly
representing the 500 families living in the Multifamiliar Tlalpan
complex said in a statement.
One of the complex's 10 buildings collapsed in last week's quake.
The
Multi-familiar Tlalpan assembly requested the creation of a panel of
federal and municipal officials to brief residents on the plan for
reconstruction and on the support available to them in the meantime.
Also
Thursday, Mexico's head of emergency services said the confirmed death
toll from the magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck the central part of the
country last week had reached 343.
This capital accounts for 204
of those fatalities, followed by the states of Morelos, 74; Puebla, 45;
and Mexico, 13, Luis Felipe Puente said.
Ninety-eight people
perished in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca as a result of the
magnitude-8.2 earthquake of Sept. 7, whose epicenter was just off the
Pacific coast.
The massive quake suffered by Mexico City in 1985 left at least 20,000 people dead.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
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75.65 |
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