1.
GV: Managua Cathedral PAN debris.
0.10

2.
MV PAN: casualty on stretcher being taken to hospital.
0.21

3.
CU: child's injuries tended to by doctor.
0.22

4.
GV EXTERIOR: field hospital.
0.26

5.
MV PAN: official registering missing people.
0.30

6.
CU: Cross ZOOM OUT TO cemetery. (2 shots)
0.48

7.
GV PAN: wrecked buildings
0.53

8.
GV: church ZOOM OUT TO MV demolition in progress.
1.01

9.
CU: Minister of planning Ivan Osorio speaking.
1.05

10.
CU: debris PAN GV: town
1.15

11.
CU SIGN PAN TO MV workers.
1.20

12.
MV: workers with excavators (2 shots) (Minister's speech ends)
1.26

13.
GV PAN: workers painting shop front. (2 shots)
1.34

14.
GV's construction workers erecting houses. (3 shots)
1.49

15.
MV:PAN TO GV modern building.
1.58

16.
CU: Minister of Planning Ivan Osorio speaking.
2.06

17.
AERIAL SHOTS OF volcano (2 shots)
2.13

18.
AERIAL SHOTS: over Nicaragua (2 shots) (Ministers speech ends)
2.24

19.
CU PAN: Seismograph in operation.
2.37

20.
MV: scientist noting readings.
2.42

21.
GV: traffic and people through shopping area. (5 shots)
3.04


"It's not possible to rebuild the city in three or four years, especially in an orderly fashion. You have to consider that we needed to clear thousands of tons of rubble before we got started, without a geological study, which is unique in this part of the world. What we are doing is building a modern, clean, livable city, built with our own economic means by ourselves."



"At first, we made the investment in the outlying areas and all the money of the government was dedicated to low-income groups. Then, we are going after the main cores, which is going to be the more dangerous zone because of seismicity. But in the end, the city will be the safest, seismically speaking, city in the world."




Initials RH/YA/DK/2350


PART TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: An earth tremor struck the Nicaraguan capital of Managua during the first week of August this year and caused alarm in some communities, as thousands of people remembered the severe earthquake which took some 15,000 lives just under four years ago.

SYNOPSIS: Managua was partly destroyed by a strong earthquake on Christmas Eve, 1972. Apart from a death toll estimated at 15,000, more than a quarter of a million people were left homeless and thousands were seriously injured.

After the earthquake,some larger buildings remained standing, but most were considered dangerous. Hospital services, badly needed for emergencies,were totally disrupted. Field hospitals were quickly set up and had to deal with more than four times their capacity.

Today, although some basic services have been restored to the city, the atmosphere of devastation remains It is a gloomy place and Managuans can hardly go anywhere without being reminded of the horrors the earthquake brought them.

According to Ivan Osorio, Deputy Minister for Urban Planning, the shattered central area of the city has been almost completely cleared,but it will be a long time before Managua is rebuilt.

Senor Osorio, the man in effective control of reconstruction plans,says new buildings are being designed as a temporary relief measure. He said the city is at least functioning again, with water, electricity and sewage facilities more than 80 per cent restored. Schools and hospitals,he said, are being rebuilt. He announced that after the present phase, there will be a long-term development plan which would make Managua the most earthquake-safe city in the world.

So far, the government has not said how much of its development plan would be finance internationally. But the amount of money involved will certainly be great. The government fears, however, that even if most of the money comes from overseas, the programme could turn out to be too ambitious for little agricultural country with a population of only two million. For the moment, development is being concentrated along the edge of the city. But eventually, building zones will be spread further, with strict international-level construction controls.