MARCH 07-APRIL 08, 2006
Situation
April 8th is the sixth month anniversary of the October 08, 2005 earthquake that hit Pakistan's Kashmir and Hazara regions killing more than 73000 people and rendering some 300,000 people homeless. Now the government has formally announced the reconstruction phase moving from the emergency though tens of thousands of people still feel they are in emergency phase and humanitarian assistance as they have lost their livelihoods, stocks and belongings.
Northwestern city of Balakot in Hazara region in the North Western Frontier Province is to be relocated somewhere else as the ruined city now falls on the fault line. The survivors of this city are in a real fix as they have to wait for years when they could be able to get alternate land and resources to reconstruct their homes and businesses.
A leading English daily The News quoted Abdul Waheed, 40 once a millionaire and now a helpless victim, as saying: "We are in limbo. What happens next?" Until they make the new city the government must give us earthquake-proof shelters so we can live there for a few years".
Amid shifting of focus from emergency to reconstruction, a number of the survivors held a protest march in Balakot after traditional Muslim prayers on Friday to press for their demands as they have not even been told where they would build their houses in the reconstruction phase. It is being said that with a massive relief effort coupled by an unusually warm winter, prevented a second wave of death among the survivors.
"It is almost beyond belief that we are now getting beyond relief in this earthquake disaster," UNs Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan Jan Vandemootele told the UN Information Unit in Islamabad. "Six months ago, I would never have thought of this situation today. Six months on, we have had a complex operation but a successful operation," he said.
Now Pakistan needs a continued support from the International community to support thousands of displaced people so that their safe, voluntary and dignified return to their native places from camps is made possible. The international community pledged worth US $6.2 billion for Pakistan earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction but materialization of the pledges seems very slow. To accelerate the materialization, the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) under a strategy would present project proposals before the donors to get the required funds.
The UN body is engaged with ERRA for the reconstruction and rehabilitation. "We are helping to build capacity, together with several other international partners, and we are providing systems in formulating strategies, in the various sectors like education, health," said Jan Vandemootele.
Actionaid's View of earthquake
Action Aid's Emergency and Reconstruction Project has taken a long term and holistic view of the earthquake emergency situation and the related challenges, planning for and building towards rights based rehabilitation phase at very early relief stage of its inception.
Interestingly the Government of Pakistan has announced that the relief phase is over in the earthquake affected areas and there is now an emphasis on recovery and longer term rehabilitation. Such arbitrary and unilateral decisions without any clear guidelines and policies have created unnecessary hurdles in the emergency relief and rehabilitation efforts and confusion among the affected families and the aid organisations
Actionaid's focus
The ERP focus now is mainly on establishing community centres for the affectees, extending psycho social assistance to them, supporting livelihood options, and strengthening the affected communities.
On the family protection front, ERP has to-date distributed 6070 quilts, 9469 blankets, 2300 stoves, 1514 latrines and 1986 kitchen sets to families in the four districts. In addition to that 3137 temporary, 50 semi-permanent and 204 prefabricated shelters have been provided to-date in these areas.
The first community centre was established in Shumlai in March 2006 with the active support of the community. Process for setting up the remaining 19 Community centres is underway in all the four districts and by mid-April, these would be constructed on land donated by the communities. These centres will primarily provide a forum for women to come together for economic, political and social activities. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is signed with the community so as to ensure that the initiative remains broad based and in case the land owner wants her/his land back the assets are used in setting up an alternative community centre.
Volunteers training
The World Health Organisation has supported ERP in training volunteers on psycho social care particularly in and around the city of Muzzaffarabad. The trainings were based on developing an understanding of the fundamental terminologies of psychology and trauma and their treatment sans medicines through self help. Teachers in Mansehra were also trained by WHO in psycho social care. This will contribute to reducing the effect of trauma in children and will also aid in preparing them for any forthcoming emergencies. Additionally an organization by the name of Rozan will be supporting staff and volunteers in all four areas. To this end they will be conducting initial three day training for field volunteers followed by refresher training from April 2006 onwards. Supervision and support visits to the field have also been planned for a period of six months.
Coordination with other NGOs and INGOs
ERP Staff has accelerated coordination with other national and international organizations to support the communities in rehabilitation in every manner possible. Through this, the staff has managed to arrange trainings on a variety of issues for the community. These include trainings on fixing households appliances, health and hygiene and first aid. Significantly women also availed these opportunities and participated in these training.
Tree plantation
Saplings for tree plantation have been provided to the affected communities by the Forestry Department. In Muzzaffarabad Oxfam GB has demonstrated willingness to support communities identified by ERP in water and sanitation which remains a major issue in these regions. In Battagram staff has attended sessions on rural sanitation and alternative technologies.
Disability assessment
Two of the field teams have undertaken disability assessments in their areas to link the identified persons with various hospitals and institutes that can provide them with longer term support and therapy.
Real Time Evaluation
A "Real Time Evaluation" of the Action Aid Pakistan programme was undertaken by external staff in the month of March 2006. The basic aim of this was to assess ERP's overall operational design and implementation process and give recommendations on how to further improve the quality of outreach and interventions. Similarly international staff also supported ERP staff through capacity building in "Participatory Vulnerability Analysis" which is a tool to analyse peoples vulnerabilities, mobilize resources and support them to reduce their vulnerability to disaster.
Visit of The Independent on Sunday journalist
Staff from Action Aid UK Media Team and a journalist from The Independent on Sunday revisited Battagram district to look at how ERP has transitioned from relief to reconstruction and how the communities have benefited from the relief provided in past six months. This two member team also visited Mansehra and Muzzafarabad field areas.
Policy Issues
In terms of policy issues a seminar was held in Bagh, AJK on "Government Compensation and Distribution and People's Resistance". This was held in coordination with the Labour Party Pakistan and attended by both women and men community representatives, journalists, political activists, National and International NGOs and scholars. The event was seen by the participants as a bold and timely step to assess and articulate critical issues regarding transparency and accountability of the compensation distribution process controlled and implemented by the Pakistan Military in the district. People openly discussed such issues as bribery, intimidation, coercion and exclusion of communities. They also raised issues of violence and blacklisting of communities and rape of women during assessment process.
Earthquake hit community at World Social Forum
The World Social Forum (WSF), a forum which aims to provide a space for reflective and democratic thinking and inter linking of effective action for groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo liberalism and domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism was held in Karachi from March 24-29,2006. ERP decided to facilitate the travel and participation of women and men from the earthquake affected areas to the plenary on "Role of the State, Civil Society and International Organisation in Natural Disaster Management" which was organized by Action Aid Pakistan, Oxfam GB and Sungi. A total of 52 .women and 124 men attended this event. For most of the participants from the communities particularly women this was the first time they had an opportunity to attend such a moot. Under the auspices is of this forum it was possible for them to voice their concerns on critical issues with regards to relief and rehabilitation in their particular areas. It also provided them with an opportunity to come together on one platform and share their grief and experiences of last year's earthquake.
Emerging Issues
The Government of Pakistan has recently circulated its policies on housing for the communities. However there are still many ambiguities with regards to such issues as monetary compensation, eligibility for the same and land reallocation.
The environment is facing a further onslaught in this area due to deforestation for reconstruction purposes. Likewise communities too are now constructing houses on agriculture lands because of unavailability of land and also the apprehension that the slopes of mountainous areas are dangerous.
Internally Displaced Persons residing in the various camps throughout the earthquake affected areas have started moving out of the camps. Repatriation was initiated by the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (ERRA) and the Pakistan Military with the support of the Organization for International Migration (OIM) which has provided vehicles to the communities to resettle in their respective areas. Many communities are not happy with this state of affairs as they feel they are being forced into this situation without preparation.
The Provincial Government NWFP and the District Government Mansehra presented Seismic Hazard Micronization Map of Balakot Town. According to this 600 hectare of Balakot town has been declared Red Zone as two parallel fault line cross the town in a one kilometre distance. Government has announced that residents will be relocated and the town will be reconstructed in another area. This raises questions of compensation to the community as well as the relocation and space for the new town.
The nutritional status of communities particularly of children is at risk as there is shortage of meat and milk in the earthquake affected areas. Most of the livestock either perished in the earthquake or were slaughtered in the aftermath.
Livelihoods of the communities particularly the poor and disadvantaged have suffered due to this catastrophe. As such it remains a key issue in all the earthquake affected areas yet the Government does not have any clear cut policy on how to restore their livelihoods.
The security situation has improved in the earthquake affected areas after last months protests and riots. Even so the military has raised the issue of escorts for the expatriate staff once again. Additionally staff of NGOs has been informed that they should be culturally sensitive and not discuss religious or political issues with the communities.
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