The Greater Kaohsiung Government said yesterday that donations have surpassed NT$3 billion (US$99 million), as pledges poured in from all sectors of society over the past two weeks to aid in the relief and reconstruction efforts for neighborhoods affected by the July 31 and Aug. 1 gas pipeline explosions.
Officials in Greater Kaohsiung said a management committee has been formed so that the funds in the special account can be supervised and managed properly and to appropriate the money in the most effective ways.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday said Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) must give a public accounting on how the donated money is being used.
He said Taiwanese have been generous with their donations in the aftermath of the disaster by contributing more than NT$3 billion, and that almost 99 percent of the money went into the account set up by the Greater Kaohsiung Government.
“Therefore people are interested in how the donation money will be used. We request the Greater Kaohsiung Government give a public account at regular intervals regarding its plans on utilizing the money, including actual spending,” Jiang said.
“This way all citizens can know how the government is using the donations in appropriate ways,” he added.
Kaohsiung’s Social Affairs Bureau said the donations are to be channeled into three main categories: household care and living assistance for victims and their families; relief work and revitalization for the disaster-hit neighborhoods and programs for safety and disaster prevention.
Of these, the first function has been allotted with the most, at an estimate of NT$1.69 billion, or about 56 percent of the total.
The spending for 12 items under this category includes financial support for the bereaved and injured, consolation for families and for funeral arrangements, along with emergency assistance for housing, the establishment of living support funds for people who were seriously injured and setting up education funds for children of the deceased and injured.
Current estimates are to allot about NT$400 million at most into the living support funds for people who sustained major injuries.
Officials said trust funds would be set up for the education assistance funds and living support for seriously injured people, so the victims and their families can be taken care of in the long run.
More than 300 individuals were hurt in the explosions and medical authorities said nine are still being treated in intensive care units for severe burns at several hospitals in Greater Kaohsiung.
Doctors at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital said one of the five burn victims in their ward has consented to accept skin grafts obtained from recently deceased persons, which could be more effective for recovery under some circumstances than artificial skins.
Lee Shu-hsin (李書欣), chief doctor at the hospital’s burn ward and intensive care unit, said the use of donated skin grafts from recently deceased people is effective when used on patients with 2nd and 3rd-degree burns, and in most cases, is more effective for protection from infection and minimizing the loss of bodily fluids.
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