The World Bank country director for Pakistan, John Wall on Thursday warned Islamabad of serious repercussions of October 8 earthquake, saying only appropriate measures could minimise the risks and ensure compensation to the rightful and deserving affectees.
He was responding to queries at launching of web portal 'RISE' to assist relief efforts in earthquake-affected areas in the NWFP and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
John Wall said that rehabilitation of the victims and construction of damaged areas were uphill tasks that may take 4-5 years.
The World Bank is a part of the consortium that launched the web portal. Other stakeholders included the government agencies involved in relief efforts, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and several civil society organisations.
The web portal is meant to disseminate reliable and authentic information on earthquake damage and relief efforts.
The WB official said that the situation arising out of major crisis such as earthquake or hurricanes create many problems such as encouraging the people to indulge in some serious crimes.
"Grabbing of the land in damaged areas and wrong claims are some of these serious problems," he added.
John Wall was of the view that delay in tackling the situation on ground could simply multiply the woes of the deserving and rightful people.
He referred Iran, China and many other countries where influential took undue advantage of the situation and deprived the deserving from their land and property as well as share in compensation.
John Wall recommended that Government of Pakistan should take appropriate measures to avoid the situation wherein deserving suffer at the hands of influential or those who are authorised for rehabilitation and reconstruction.
He suggested house-to-house survey to establish the real ownership of damaged property and land.
The web portal offers pre-earthquake information, showing village-level demographic and infrastructure data, major road networks and the distance of every village from the epicentre of the earthquake.
Each of 4,000 villages is listed on a table of common headings, including everything from amount of aid received to the agencies working in the area.
John Wall said "RISE" was truly a remarkable and spontaneous collaboration by a range of academics and development practitioners.
He said, "The portal will be key to co-ordination among donors and relief agencies, and the WB will certainly use it extensively to plan the follow-up support for Pakistan.
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