January 27, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 26, 1426

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GARHI HABIBULLAH, Jan 26: Will the daily doles of relief to the survivors make them addicted to aid like the government? That prospect would worry anyone visiting the relief camps dotting the vast region devastated by last October’s earthquake.

Even three months after the catastrophe, the relief syndrome continues to be in evidence whereas aid agencies and workers believe the situation demands a long-term strategy to make the millions of survivors self-reliant.

A senior army officer connected with the relief distribution and road repair works in Garhi Habibullah told Dawn that he wished the government helped the earthquake survivors to rebuild their sources of income instead of handing them out aid.

Present plans call for continuing relief handouts until June. How would the receivers survive after the handouts are stopped is an obvious question.

Aid workers suggest that the government should work on long- term solutions. It is time to start rehabilitation work along with relief and reconstruction works. The government should set up some small industries and hire the survivors to rebuild their areas with the assistance of government and voluntary experts, they say.

Relief and shelter material has reached much of the nearly 18,000 square kilometres worst affected by the earthquake where roads have also been reopened, according to the army officer.

He said the government aimed at covering the remaining area by June. The entire reconstruction and rehabilitation work would take five years to complete.

He said it was very difficult to build roads there since the per kilometre road construction cost in the mountainous areas was Rs6 million. The rescue workers have restored 40 per cent roads in the affected areas.

The relief workers are also afraid of heavy rains which adversely affect their activities, forcing them to start all over again.

They also fear that appearance of cracks in the mountains plus soft soil could result in massive landslides after heavy rains, resulting in more destruction.

Normalcy is returning to the affected areas and most of the people have been shifted to better shelters made with corrugated galvanized iron sheets and winterized tents. They have also been provided food, medicines, warm clothes, blankets, crockery and other items of daily use by government and private sector organizations, NGOs, and other countries.

Some families have migrated to safer places, but a large number of people are still living on their lands, located 5,000 to 8,500 feet above from the sea level. They are afraid that if case they leave, they would lose their land, animals and houses.

However, freezing temperatures, touched -13 degree centigrade at night and 1-2 degree centigrade during the day, have made life more difficult in the affected areas.

United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) is providing CGI sheets and tools for making shelters with the help of Pakistan Army in the seven union council of Garhi Habibullah.

The UNDP is giving 15 CGI sheets each to a family for building a 8X18 shelter, which can accommodate five to seven people. About 1,789 shelters have been built in the area.

The UN body is also facilitating widows, elderly people, injured person and the families lacking male support. It has also imported 452,000 CGI sheets from India through a privet channel.

The UNDP is also planning to give LGP cylinders to the survivors for cooking and heating purpose. Besides, burners will be provided to basic health care units, hospitals, community centres and camps for the same purpose.

Mian Khan, a resident of Kahukan Butt, 3.8 kilometres from Garhi Habibullah, said their basic problem was cold weather.

“We burn wood to warm our shelters and tents, but it’s too dangerous for us,” Mr Khan said.

Mohammad Raifq, a resident of Butt Sangran, located 8,100 feet above from the sea level, said the people of the area were farmers and labourers, most of whom had been rendered jobless due to the earthquake.

“We need some source of income to return to normal life,” he added.

Meanwhile, a source close to a foreign seismic survey team told Dawn that the devastated areas in the AJK and the NWFP fell in the earthquake red zone, and that another massive earthquake was expected in these areas.

He said the soil samples suggested that reconstruction in these areas were highly risky due to softness of soil.

The source said the survey team, comprising American, Japanese and German experts, studied the affected areas and suggested that the cities and town should be built at new locations as 40 per cent of the region laid on fault line.