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December 2006                                                                            Volume 11 - Number 3

Perspectives...

Update on Recovery Efforts in the Pakistan Earthquake
By Justin Miller

On December 5, 2005, a major earthquake with a magnitude of around 7.6 struck the Pakistan region, causing over 75,000 casualties and damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings.  In any disaster of this magnitude, the recovery process requires patience and time to fully recovery.  While there as been great improvement to the region’s recovery, the effort is still progressing
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Pakistan_earthquake).  Highlighted below are some updates on the recovery efforts from the Pakistan earthquake.

In a year in review report released in October 2006, Pakistan’s Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) estimates that it will need $3.6 billion USD in order to meet budget estimates and resource requirements from 2005 through the year 2009.  According to their report, it estimates that 44% of the total reconstruction costs will go toward private housing rehabilitation.  72% of the health facility infrastructure has been restored.  Funding has recently been received to reconstruct 25% of the educational structure during 2006-7.  All main roads for transportation have been officially reopened (http://www.erra.gov.pk/Reports/ERRA-Review-200506.pdf).

The ERRA recently granted an additional $575,748 USD for another 448 owners to begin reconstructing their houses.  The current number of people taking advantage of the housing subsidy is 415,900 and the total amount of money granted to this program is $485,396,114 USD (http://www.erra.gov.pk/WebForms/NewsDetails.aspx?id=132).

According to mark Ward from USAID, the majority of refugee tent camps are gone and have been replaced with iron roof housing.  He said while some refugees will have to spend the winter with relatives or in tent camps, “the vast majority of the nearly 3 million people displaced by the quake are no longer living in tents. They are in permanent and temporary homes that will safely see them through the winter” (http://newsblaze.com/story/ 20061122072324tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html).

There have been recent land issues with land allocation, which has been causing delays in the reconstruction of health and educational infrastructure in Pakistan’s northern earthquake- affected zone.  The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was scheduled to start rebuilding in October of last month, but the delays in allocating land have halted their efforts.  These delays are increasing the timeline to complete these crucial infrastructure facilities.  Also causing to these delays are poor road conditions, difficult mountainous terrain, and shortages of appropriate transportation to move the heavy machinery (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/STED-6VDNGL?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=EQ-2005-000174-PAK).

In a study conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the majority of the 35,000 vulnerable people still living in the 47 displacement camps across northern Pakistan cite “landlessness” as their main reason why they cannot return home.  The second reason cited by camp residents for not returning to their homes was fear of being relocated to unsafe locations without the infrastructure to support their daily lives (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/ db900SID/LSGZ-6VREVS?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=EQ-2005-000174-PAK).