Three years after the devastating earthquake which killed thousands and left millions homeless Elena Immambocus reports on heartening progress in the region.

It is startling to travel in Kashmir today, three years after the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The awe-inspiring valleys at whose feet snake the Neelum and Jhelum rivers are set against cloud-skimming peaks. Brightly-painted trucks throttle the hill-top bends, ramshackle market stalls clamour for attention and boys play impromptu cricket on dusty stretches of road. Only the relentless construction betrays the past: mounds of rubble, concrete, steel wires, mixers, diggers and the thud of the trucks skimming potholes as clods of earth are thrown up into the air.

On 8 October 2005 an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck 100 kilometres north of Islamabad, in nine districts in the region and in neighbouring North West Frontier Province. The world saw TV images of hospitals flattened, homes razed to their foundations, families cleaved apart, roads, bridges, power, and hope lost. The city of Balakot clung to survival by a thread.

A seven-year-old girl was found wandering, dazed, in the aftermath, gripping a bag in each hand. “This one’s mine,” she said. “And this is my brother’s. I’m keeping it for him. He’s over there.” She motioned to the scene of a flattened school some 50 metres away.

Three years on, Matwali Khan, a retired teacher with a sober manner and a carefully-trimmed white beard, is proud of the new earthquake-resistant house his family have moved into. Like others, Matwali completed his dwelling using the cash grant scheme, receiving a total of 75,000 rupees in land compensation, a further 150,000 rupees for reconstruction, plus DFID-funded technical advice in how to build quakeproof structures. “Our house before was on a slope, higher up the mountain, but this new place is more stable,” he points out, “our future is more stable”.

Nageena, whose daughter and other close family members were among the 70,000 who lost their lives in the earthquake, smiles warmly for the camera while her son, Asad, pulls at her dupatta. “Things are getting better now inshallah. We have to think about the future.”

Nageena was visiting a Merlin healthcare centre to collect her prescriptions in one of the last remaining IDP (internally displaced people) camps set atop Muzaffarabad, the sprawling capital city of Pakistan Administered Kashmir. She had received the compensation she needed to rebuild her house, while her husband was working in the reconstruction business. She spoke of the food package of flour and lentils that helped to make the transition back home.

The scale of the challenge, in addition to the death toll, over 120,000 injured and three million homeless, generated a remarkable international response. Relief efforts were immense, including search and rescue teams and emergency supplies. The UK government gave £53 million in emergency relief, the Pakistani community in the UK and numerous organisations and individuals in Britain gave millions more. And the difference it made was vital. After the initial hit, and the aftershocks which triggered 2,000 landslides, there were no additional epidemics or cases of starvation as people camped out on the hilltops facing freezing temperatures. Local communities were profoundly affected by the level of solidarity they witnessed from people across Pakistan, the UK and worldwide. As Pir Syed Gillani, Mayor of Muzaffarabad, states with conviction “good nations never forget the good deeds done to them.”

If the scale of the disaster was unprecedented – with damage estimated at $4.5 billion – so too was the coordination challenge faced by the government-appointed body, ERRA (Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority), in steering the 85 donor agencies who pledged aid.

Along with ERRA and the UN, DFID’s reconstruction funds of £49 million helped to rebuild 250,000 houses that could survive earthquakes in the future. And the transfer of land – which used to cost thousands of rupees and months of procedural delays – now takes a few days and a couple of hundred rupees. Government offices are now housed in functional and modern prefabs – storing, for example, valuable land ownership records – allowing them to get on with delivering vital services to a shaken population.

Fifty new bridges are being constructed, reconnecting vital links to regional trade routes. The new DFID-funded Kahouri bridge alone brings in services and communications from the capital.

Local midwife, Mehrunnisa, at the renovated Basic Healthcare Unit, a mother of six, is quick to point to the benefits. “The rest of us here at Neelum Valley (a population of 125,000) are no longer cut off.” No small feat when you add into the mix the hazardous terrain, short building seasons in the mountains and harsh climatic conditions.

And life has got better for local traders too. In the past, a businessman had to divide up his goods to transport them across the bridge by hand – a process that could take hours, even days depending on the flow of the river. Now, as local truck-drivers explain, the reinforced bridge is a life-line, boosting livelihoods by cutting down transaction times and costs. The region isn’t just being rebuilt – it’s being rebuilt stronger.

Much more remains to be done. The deadline for full reconstruction has been extended to a more realistic fiveyear timeframe. Houses are in need of completion – and with construction prices rocketing with the hike in global prices, some families are struggling.

“Price inflation is so high, how will we keep up?” asks Zeenat, whose husband is trying to set up business as a shopkeeper. “We’re so vulnerable,” she adds looking at her daughter, Samiah, born in the IDP camp – a symbol of a still fragile future. Water and sanitation facilities need to be improved. And, critically, schools are in desperate need of attention, with only 3% of 5,000 institutions rebuilt to date – something which DFID is looking to support in the next phase.

Earthquakes have powerful, apocalyptic associations in this part of the world. Parts 17 and 30 in the Qur’an link these natural disasters to the end of the world, magnifying the terror experienced by local communities. Yet scars heal. The dense green mountainsides slashed with grey streaks are now peppered with hundreds of white stones marking the replanting of trees. But the area still remains quake-prone, with a second fault line active in the region.

So what happens now really matters. It’s vital that skills and practical knowledge are shared, as children start to learn about how to be prepared for earthquakes in their school curriculum. Because, alongside these new quakeproof structures, the communities’ best safeguard against future shocks is the know-how that empowers local people.

MORE INFORMATION
To order a copy of the DFID Country Plan for Pakistan fill in the attached reply card or to download a PDF go to:

www.dfid.gov.uk/countries/asia/pakistan.asp