Italy's prime minster Matteo Renzi has pledged emergency funds of €234 mln to help rebuild the devastated villages of Umbria, Lazio and le Marche affected by the 6.2 magnitude earthquake this week.
'It's a challenge of credibility and honour,' he said, calling for an alternative approach to the temporary housing constructed for l'Aquila in 2009.
Renzi told press it was vital 'to allow these citizens to start over, and reclaim these beautiful villages'.
While 2,500 inhabitants of the affected towns slept in tents and sports centres on Wednesday night, it is understood that the homeless figures are likely to be much higher as structural tests are carried out on the remaining buildings.
In the 2009 earthquake in nearby l'Aquila, where 300 people lost their lives, as many as 50,000 people needed to be rehoused in the wake of the disaster. Prefabricated 'New Towns' were built, initially as temporary accommodation, but seven years on from the tragedy are still fully occupied.
The President of Italy's Camera dei Deputati, Laura Boldrini, said that 'the New Town approach was very disfunctional' as she visited destroyed homes in Arquata del Tronto.
Long-term funding is expected to arrive from the EU Solidarity Fund, which donated €500 mln to l'Aquila in 2009. However, a subsequent independent report concluded that the EU cash sent to aid Abruzzo relief efforts was misused and partially diverted to companies with links to organised crime. The town centre of l'Aquila remains unihabitable today.
'Now is not the time to bring up controversies,' Renzi told the press in Rieti. 'We won't abandon anyone.'
