December 14, 2005	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: The government sought technical support for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the earthquake-hit areas from international donor organizations here on Tuesday. Salman Shah, advisor to the prime minister on finance, revenue, economic affairs and statistics said that the donor organizations should extend technical support to the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authorities (Erra) for capacity building and planning of projects covering key areas.

He said technical support was needed in different fields which included education, health, power, housing, infrastructure, town planning, water and sanitation sectors.

Mr Shah was speaking at a meeting with representatives of international donor organizations, among them were the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Britain’s Department for International Development, USAID, JBIC Japan and UNDP.

It was decided in the meeting that a document would be prepared listing all projects to be launched in the coming months covering different sectors.

Erra Chairman Lt-Gen Mohammad Zubair, giving an update on the progress made on construction and rehabilitation of houses of earthquake victims, said that the housing strategy was owner- driven and first instalment of Rs25,000 had been paid to those who had lost their homes.

As many as 37,000 houses were constructed and rehabilitated by the army, he said, while NGOs had built 15,000 houses. Governor Punjab had promised to provide 25,000 construction workers to build houses in Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.

Chairman Erra said public and private funded houses would be built according to the approved design and earthquake resistance structures.

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