TAIPEI: Seven technicians from the mainland arrived in Kaohsiung city, southern Taiwan, yesterday to help assemble prefabricated houses donated by Beijing for people left homeless by Typhoon Morakot.

The technicians joined three others who have been in Taiwan since August 22 to assist with putting up the houses in Shanlin township in Kaohsiung county.

Their mission is to assemble 200 prefab houses in three weeks.

The mainland planned to send 1,000 prefab houses worth nearly 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) to Taiwan. By yesterday afternoon 600 houses had been transported to Taiwan and the last shipment will arrive Sunday.

At the launch of a temporary housing project in Shanlin township Sunday, Yeh Shih-wen, director of the Construction and Planning Agency, said each 15-ping prefab house has two bedrooms, one living area and a bathroom.

"The houses can be used for more than 10 years," Yeh said, adding that the new 100-house community will have an activity center, a parking lot and other public facilities, with major roads eight meters wide.

The prefabricated housing donated by authorities on the mainland was held up initially, after questions were raised about whether the units contained high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde.

Two houses were assembled in Jiadong township of Kaohshiung on August 20. Tests by the National Institute of Environmental Analysis under Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration quashed the rumor.

Wang Pi, director-general of the National Institute of Environmental Analysis, said that indoor air samples collected from the two contained no formaldehyde while the total volatile organic compounds concentrations were under allowable levels.

Xinhua

(HK Edition 08/25/2009 page2)