IRIN
PAKISTAN: Quake villages need immediate help
27 June 2006


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

KAHORI, 27 June (IRIN) - The road to Kahori, high above the Neelum 
River, is a treacherous one. Along the largely single lane dirt tract, 
cars needle for room in passing - often at great risk of plummeting to 
almost certain death.

Many of the tiny roads and hamlets that dot its path all but disappeared 
following the 8 October quake that ravaged the area. Others serve only 
as graveyards for their former inhabitants, some of whose bodies lie 
entombed under the rubble more than eight months after the disaster.

But death has lost much of its meaning to those driven by the desire to 
return. More than 80 percent of those living in displaced persons camps 
have since returned to their places of origin and now face the daunting 
task of rebuilding their lives.

"This is my village. This is my home," Muhammad Shabbir said outside his 
tent with his wife and four children under the hot midday sun, after 
returning from the nearby city Mansehra where they were staying with 
relatives.

"I really wanted to come back. I want to rebuild, but I don't know 
whether I can do it," the 40-year-old driver said.

That's a question being asked again and again by the 1,900 residents of 
this picturesque village wedged into a hillside, 25 km north of 
Muzaffarabad, the provincial capital of quake-ravaged 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

More than 95 percent of the homes in the village were destroyed by the 
powerful quake that ripped through Pakistan's North West Frontier 
Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, killing more than 
75,000 people and leaving more than 3.5 million homeless.

According to the United Nations, hundreds of villages and hamlets were 
completely wiped out in the region. Earlier estimates of 400,000 homes 
damaged or destroyed now exceed 600,000, while over 500 health 
facilities, nearly 6,000 schools and colleges, and countless government 
buildings were destroyed, killing many doctors, teachers, community 
leaders, and government officials.

In Kahori alone, 175 people lost their lives and 65 were injured, while 
the village itself, comprised mostly of civil servants who commuted to 
Muzaffarabad each day to sustain their families, lay in ruins.

Prior to the quake, the village had a post office, bank, health facility 
and school - amenities that any community in the area would have been 
proud of.

"We had everything," Khawaja Masood, a government worker for the area's 
rural development office, maintained. "Now it's all gone."

Today, even access to clean drinking water is limited to 10 to 15 
minutes a day.

And while 300 students are currently enrolled in the village school 
under a tent, it is questionable whether they will ever be able to 
rebuild. Villagers told IRIN that not a single government official had 
come forward with a plan and there was increasing concern that they had 
been forgotten.

Throughout the region, many villages face similar circumstances and 
despite admirable efforts by the government and international community 
to rebuild in some areas, many other areas have been less fortunate. In 
short, conditions in Kahori, like many other villages in the area, 
remain grim and the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking 
nothing was happening.

Rubble and debris block many of narrow footpaths that traverse the 
village where residents contemplate another winter under tent.

"I can't live in this tent in the winter," one resident complained, 
adjacent to the collapsed remains of his home. "I received the first 
compensation installment from the government," he said, referring to the 
first US $400 installment of a $3,000 compensation scheme established by 
the government for returning homeowners. "But what good is that? I can't 
even get rid of the rubble with that amount."

Yet with no job and his savings exhausted, the 38-year-old man has 
virtually no choice but to use that money to live on.

In smaller villages in the area, the plight of residents is much the 
same - but sometimes more challenging. In Gali Kokhran, perched on a 
hilltop near Kahori, access is particularly problematic for the 400 
residents who maintain they were "forced" to return by the authorities.

"We didn't have a choice," said Jumat Ali, a 35-year-old baker, who 
returned two months earlier from a displaced persons camp in 
Muzaffarabad.

Despite the reopening of a small school with two teachers in the 
village, the situation has changed little since the quake first hit, 
while in other instances it has actually worsened.

Following the 7.6 magnitude quake, local springs used by the community 
dried up, while on the issue of health, there is no doctor resident in 
the community and a journey to Muzaffarabad to seek treatment on 
perilous roads could take up to three hours.

But it is the issue of shelter that remains paramount on the minds of 
residents in Gali Khokran - and throughout the 30,000-km quake-affected 
area.

"I'm living in a tent now. My house was destroyed," Ali said, sitting 
atop the remnants of his home. His story is indicative of the thousands 
of quake survivors who lost their homes.

Despite having received the first part of the government's compensation, 
the father of four complains that due to delays in further payments, 
that money was spent long ago to sustain his family.

"I don't know how I will survive, much less rebuild," Ali repeatedly 
said.

Indeed, that is a concern amongst many aid workers on the ground, who 
now warn unless rebuilding efforts are accelerated this summer, there is 
a strong possibility of another influx of people into urban areas this 
winter.

"Of course people in these areas will come back down. They have no 
choice and we aren't moving fast enough," one UN staff member in 
Muzaffarabad, who declined to be identified, told IRIN reluctantly.

Should that happen, Pakistani authorities and the international 
community will face fresh challenges in the region's larger cities and 
towns, where UN Humanitarian Coordinator to Pakistan, Jan Vandemootele, 
has already conceded that more than 100,000 people, a residual caseload 
of displaced persons, would likely be living under tents this winter and 
for the foreseeable future.

If more people join them, a new crisis could well loom on the horizon.

"I've been to these villages. Rebuilding hasn't really started yet," one 
aid worker stated.

In short, despite noble efforts by the aid community, clearly more needs 
to be done and fast. "The clock is ticking," warned one NGO worker who 
has spent more than four months in the area. "We need to do more."

But that comes at a cost. The United Nations in May launched a $300 
million 12-month rebuilding plan to help tens of thousands of quake 
survivors to ensure that the services they received in camps over the 
last few months return with them to the villages and hamlets. And while 
the UN has already received $100 million, the world body is urging 
countries who pledged donations to redirect their funds to this effort.

The goal of the Early Recovery Plan (ERA) is to support the longer-term 
road to reconstruction by bridging the end of the relief phase and the 
start of full-scale reconstruction.

According to the plan, experience shows that activities tend to tail off 
to a low ebb as relief operations come to an end and before 
reconstruction activities fully take place. If this were to happen, many 
survivors could face another difficult situation next winter. Timely 
support needs to arrive to affected populations who are starting to 
rebuild their normal lives so that they no longer have to rely on 
humanitarian assistance. For this reason, the ERA outlines a set of 
operational programmes for early recovery to minimise the gap between 
relief and reconstruction.


IRIN photos and articles of the Asia earthquake impact are available to 
media and members of the humanitarian community free-of-charge. Articles 
can be accessed at www.IRINnews.org. Full-sized images suitable for 
publications can be downloaded directly from the public photo 
library:www.irinnews.org/photogallery/iringallery .  To search for 
appropriate photos select 'Pakistan' under the Country search dropdown 
box.


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Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org


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