January 30, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 29, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Hundreds of women from eight quake- affected union councils of Abbottabad and Mansehra districts have termed the government-announced amount of Rs175,000 for reconstruction of each house as ‘insufficient and illogical’ in areas where people have to cut rocks to rebuild houses.

An assembly of women from the devastated areas, organized by Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation, has also demanded that the government should come up with quake-proof designs of buildings that gave due value to the local culture and were practical.

Women hailing from union councils Dalola, Boi, Kakakman, Patan Klaan, Namal and Bagot of district Abbotabad and union councils Gari Habibullah and Karnol of Mansehra district participated in the assembly held in Abbotabad on Sunday. A copy of the resolution passed unanimously by the assembly was provided to Dawn.

The participants demanded substantial increase in the amount announced by the government for the reconstruction of each house as per the rate of inflation in the country. After the October 8 earthquake, they added, not only the prices of the construction materials had been jacked up to an unprecedented level, but daily wages of labourers had also been more than doubled.

The government-announced money was not sufficient for even building the boundary wall and latrine of a house let alone building bedrooms etc., for a family of eight to 12, they maintained.

The funds being poured in by the international community should be honestly distributed among the victims with a view to rebuilding the infrastructure and rehabilitating people, they said.

Women, the participants said, were the major victims of the sever socio-economic outcomes of the earthquake. Those women who lost their husbands or male heads of families were now suffering and were more vulnerable socially, economically and emotionally. A majority of the women said their whole day was spent bringing water and cooking food for their children and they could not generate income.

A majority of the water sources have dried up in these areas after the earthquake and women faced great hardships in fetching potable water from far off springs. They said the provision of drinkable water to the survivors at their doorstep must be the main priority of the government besides reconstructing roads or other basic infrastructure.

The government had not established any basic health unit in union council Dalola after the health unit was destroyed by earthquake. Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation, they said, had provided a temporary health service to the area in a container, however, the government was yet to do anything in this regard.

Teams of doctors from different countries visited people in these areas occasionally, and, in majority of the cases, after weeks. However, survivors needed doctors and essential medicines round the clock as water-borne and other diseases caused by severe cold and badly delivered first aid services were now spreading.

Women also complained of various problems in getting cashed the cheques distributed among them by the government as compensation for the loss of lives.

Speaking on the occasion, head of Omar Asghar Khan Foundation Ali Asghar Khan said no reconstruction plan could work without fully involving women and rehabilitating them not only to their pre-earthquake status, but by enabling them to accomplish more.