Second anniversary of earthquake: Erra to hold international conference today

A conference to mark second anniversary of the earthquake and analyse the progress made so far in the rehabilitation and reconstruction processes in the quake affected areas would be held here on Thursday.
A number of national and international donors would participate in the conference to take stock of the issue and officials of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra ) will brief the donors about its success achieved in the reconstruction phase and lessons learnt and the future strategy. The devastating earthquake on October 8, 2005 had left 3.6 million people homeless in NWFP and Azad Jammu Kashmir.
Rehabilitation process in the areas is in full swing to reconstruct the devastate areas under modern plan with self-sustainable in essential common facilities. Erra Chairman Altaf Salim in an interview with APP said that the Authority was working in twelve sectors including housing, health, education, communication, livelihood, transportation and tourism under principle of build back better.
Around 3.5 million people were living in tents after earthquake and they were shifted to shelter houses on occasion of first anniversary of the earthquake. "Now, more than half of them have their own seismic proof houses, when we are near to observe second anniversary of the earthquake," he said.
"Around 0.6 million houses are at various levels of reconstruction across earthquake affected region and 98,511 out of the under construction houses are above lintel level," the Erra Chairman said.
He said that 98 percent people have been given second tranche of total Rs 30.125 billion as assistance for reconstruction of houses while third tranche of Rs 5.29 billions have also been disbursed to 211 families. "Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) transferred Rs 307.35 million to accounts of 12,294 people in 34 union councils," Altaf said.
To a question regarding transparency of the disbursements and overall expenditures, the Erra Chairman said that all disbursement are being made through banks and the disbursement process was transparent and documented. Altaf elaborated that international community including donor institutions had pledged $6.3 billion financial assistance.
"Donors spent $1.8 billion by themselves on relief operation in the early days of the calamity," he elaborated adding that 27 percent of the remaining $4.5 billion was spent on reconstruction of houses. Half of these allocations have been distributed among the affectees and disbursement of the remaining fifty percent financial assistance would be completed before June 2008.
The other allocations were utilised in various projects including city relocations, cash livelihood programme and capacity building. Around 2 billion dollars of the 4.5 have been spent while $2.5 would also be utilised for uplift of education, agriculture and communication sectors.
"Transparency was ensured through motivating the donors to execute reconstruction and relief projects under their own authority rather than transferring funds to Erra , he maintained.
The Erra Chairman said that detailed planning for reconstruction of Muzaffarabad city on modern lines was completed while study for reconstruction of Rawalakot, Bagh and Balakot was under way with special focus on strategy to promote tourism industry in these cities.
"Land acquisition for construction of various buildings in AJK is under process," he said, adding that Chinese consultants and contractors had been mobilised to develop the infrastructure design of the Muzaffarabad city and they had started design work at the site.
The project of constructing Muzaffarabad under modern plan would cost $3.5 million (Rs 21 billion) and additional Rs 42 billion have been allocated for acquisition of land. The Erra Chairman said that Balakot city would be relocated at Bakriyal site, where a total of 3, 49,806 homes would be constructed. Total cost on relocation of 6,000 families has been estimated Rs 14 billion from which Rs 1.5 billion would be spent on acquisition of land.
"Old Balakot city will be used for tourism and business activities but it would not be used for residential purposes," Erra Chairman explained. He said that Cash Grants Programme was initiated to provide financial assistance to earthquake victims and Rs 5 billion has so far been disbursed to vulnerable households since April 2006.
"A total of 262,000 people benefitted from that Programme" he added. As many as 6,000 kilometers roads were damaged during the quake that also disrupted relief operations but now under the reconstruction plan new roads and bridges have been constructed according to international standards.
The Chairman Erra said that piped water had been provided to the people of areas where prior to October 8, 2008 earthquake women were fetching water from the far areas.
Briefing about education sector, Altaf Salim said that 5,000 schools had been constructed in the region but as per quantum they had more capacity than that of the schools which existed before the earthquake. The newly built schools have been furnished with state-of-the-art scientific labs, computer rooms and other learning facilities.
Two new universities would be constructed in Muzaffarabad, among them work on one alma mater has been started by Turkish firms while project of other university would be funded and executed by the Saudi Arabian government. "Hazara University in NWFP, another area hit by the quake, will also be established by Turkish support," he said.