Residents in the disaster areas have struggled to get their lives back to normal with assistance from home and abroad, while relief workers braved icy sleet to distribute food, quilts and other aid to survivors.

A 10-kilovolt emergency power line that stretches over 1 kilometre has been set up in Bachu County of Xinjiang to guarantee a normal electricity supply, although sub-zero temperatures, snow and rain have hampered relief work since Saturday, according to local officials.

Vehicles have been mobilized around the clock to provide adequate water for people and livestock in Qongkurqak, a Bachu township that was the most seriously hit by the deadly quake.

All of its water supply facilities, including about 200 motor-pumped wells and 200 kilometres of major water transportation lines, were destroyed.

Zhu Zhunping, a township official responsible for the quake-relief effort, said people had started to repair water pipelines and dig new wells, adding that more water should be available soon.

The overwhelming earthquake, which registered 6.8 on the Richter scale, jolted Jiashi and Bachu counties on February 24, leaving at least 268 people dead, over 4,000 injured and flattening nearly 9,000 houses.

Although aftershocks still rattle nerves in the earthquake zone, a story from Xinhua saying a strong aftershock measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit Bachu yesterday morning has proven to be a rumour, according to the China Seismological Bureau.

An unnamed bureau official said there was a minor aftershock early yesterday, but it only reached 4 on the Richter scale.

So far, Xinjiang has received nearly 60 million yuan (US$7.3 million) in donations and another 16 million yuan (US$1.9 million) worth of relief material from home and abroad, according to the autonomous region's government.

(China Daily March 5, 2003)