Normal life in the last October's earthquake-affected areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir has started reviving following the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction measures taken by Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra).
Less than two percent of the affected people were living in tents, and would be shifted to some sort of shelter houses before the coming winter, so that every one would have roof in next winter, said Erra Deputy Chairman Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed said with the help of national and international donors and NGOs, there was no major epidemic in the quake-hit areas, while no one died of lack of food or shelter. He said the second donors' conference was planned in November this year to explain the progress made in the first year and to further motivate Pakistani corporate sector for generating more funds.
The Erra Deputy Chairman said pledges to provide US 6.2 billion dollars were made at the first international donors' conference, however, the cost of reconstruction might go beyond what had been estimated earlier. The Erra Deputy Chairman said following the reports of seismic survey, it was decided that Balakot would be moved to Bakrial while some buildings of Muzaffarabad would be shifted to other places.
He said the Erra was concentrating on 12 areas including housing, education, healthcare, livelihood, transportation, agriculture and livestock, environment, power generation, water supply and sanitation, industries, tourism and telecommunication.
Regarding staff position, he said, the Erra recruited necessary technical staff to carry on the gigantic work of rehabilitation and reconstruction in the affected areas where 73,400 people lost their lives, more than three million lost their homes and over 69,000 were injured seriously.
About the new facilities, he said, the quality of health and education was better in those affected areas as available before October 8 last year. He said, "All the educational institutions are working, health units including small and big hospitals either in alternative of make-shift arrangements, are fully functional and all the roads damaged due to earthquake are now opened."
The Erra Deputy Chairman said 85 percent assessment of the damaged houses had been completed and over Rs 22 billion were distributed among the 300,000 households to repair their homes. He said over 600 teams had been working in the affected areas for survey and the main assessment was completed.
He said Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot and Bagh were complex towns but the Erra was fully prepared to reconstruct them, and added that survey of damaged houses and buildings in urban areas of Muzaffarabad was started from August 10 and it would be completed within 30 days.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed said that survey in Shangla, Kohistan and Neelum valley would be started very soon. The construction in 'Red Zones' in Muzaffarabad and Balakot was completely banned as some of those areas were near the fault line, he added.
He said about 20 percent areas of Muzaffarabad and the present whole area of Balakot had been declared as "Red Zones," therefore there would be no construction in those areas.
There had been complete co-ordination and co-operation of Erra with the United Nations, USAID, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union and other donors' agencies of friendly countries for the reconstruction programme, he added.
Under the livelihood programme, he said, Rs 3,000 per month were being distributed among 181,000 families for the last three months. About the resources, he said, the government had the required money to be spent in the first year of the reconstruction programme.
Recently, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz while presiding over fifth Erra Council meeting expressed satisfaction on the work and progress of reconstruction work.
He said considerable progress had been made in the housing, education, urban planning sector in the earthquake-affected areas and the government had so far released Rs 45 billion for construction of housing and as compensation for the dead and injured.
The Prime Minister said the total commitment made by the international community at the Donor's Conference was 6.5 billion dollars of which four billion dollars was in loans and 2.5 billion dollars in the form of grants. He said about 1.3 billion dollars of the grant assistance had been spent and 2.4 billion dollars from loans were disbursed.