October 05, 2006

“I have started building my house for the winter using the same material and technique my father used,” explains 26-year-old Mohammad Siddique, a farmer and resident of Aal village, Union Council Sacha in Siran Valley, District Mansehra. He has no knowledge of the ten-step poster on reconstruction or any architectural or structural map that Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) has come up with. “Even if there are such documents, I don’t know where to get them from.” There are reports that these do-it-yourself posters are being revised.

Last October 8, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck parts of the North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir, claiming over 73,000 lives, severely wounding 70,000 people and rendering over 3.5 million people homeless.

With winter approaching fast and snowfall between four to five feet annually, Siddique, like scores of others is desperate to provide a home for his family. He also says he doesn’t know of anyone in his village or in the nearby hamlets who have as yet received instalments promised for reconstruction.

”I have two young children and other family members to look after. Even if ERRA gives me compensation money to begin reconstruction today, I would not be able to construct the house because it would take me many months to get to the roof level,” says Siddique

Every village you go to and everyone you talk to, the stories are somewhat similar. Getting the instalment has become a long-drawn out and tedious process, too much documentation for a population that is not very literate and does not have their documents in order. Some have even lost their papers under the rubble. Then there are stories of bank officers and ERRA officials demanding mithai, even as much as Rs 5,000 from house owners before preparing their claim for the financial aid.

”If ERRA has to give money, it has to have proof and that can be done after a proper assessment. These things take time and are fraught with complications as claims are many but they have to be lawful as well. It’s not all that simple. The lost records are being verified by the revenue office and informal land transfers are being ascertained by holding jirgas. Another issue that has come up is that of disputed lands where land feuds in the absence of any documents make it impossible for us to know the owner of the land,” says Haider Durrani, District Housing Coordinator, in District Mansehra, explaining the delay.

Eight months into the post-relief phase and winter fast setting in, survivors are far from settled. Reconstruction and rebuilding remains the greatest challenge both for the government and its partner organisations.

According to most aid agencies and relief organisations working in the area, one of the biggest weaknesses of the implementation of the housing strategy by ERRA, has been the quality of information, or the lack of it, available to owners. In many locations the guidelines are still not available. The hurdles, they say begin at various levels including policy-making, communicating the policies, but most importantly, their implementation.

According to Daud Malik, National Media Officer with Oxfam, recent surveys carried out by various NGOs in rural areas in and around Jhelum Valley in Azad Kashmir point to the fact that beneficiaries had not received any information about the ERRA guidelines till the end of August. “In the Allai Valley, around half of those surveyed in the union councils of Jambera and Sakargah have no knowledge of the materials for construction approved by the government.”

Transporting the construction material and inadequate road access are two major constraints that were brought up again and again during the course of conversations with the survivors. “Even if I get the money to begin reconstruction, about 30 to 40 per cent of it will be consumed transporting the material. However, will I be able to construct to the level the government demands to get further instalment when most of the money will be used up buying and transporting the material? It takes a good 40 minutes walk to get to the nearest accessible point after which a vehicle can be used. The material has to be transported from that point to my house either on donkeys or our shoulders,” says Siddique.

ERRA’s earlier condition of adhering to its design and using materials like steel and cement, to be able to claim the compensation, package has recently been relaxed. Deputy Chairman ERRA, Lt. General Nadeem Ahmed says, “We’re also evolving and learning. Our policies are not cast in stone. Wherever needed we are open to corrections and suggestions. We realised that there were some very difficult to access areas up in the mountains as well as semi urban places, like Chakothi, which are at quite a distance from the city centre and transporting goods so far off would be costly.

“We have decided to allow people to have timber frame construction for which we are designing. The step-wise construction posters for such housing will be ready by the third week of September. Our design regimen may be strict as we will adhere to seismically-safe construction, but with compensation we’re soft.”

ERRA had initially thought of one design each for a house, a school, a health facility and public offices, etc., to bring about uniformity and thus compliance. Soon it realised this was near to impossible given the different terrain and topography, the varied size of landholdings and the different bearing capacity etc. Getting skilled labour was another gargantuan task as the local artisans seemed busy making their own shelters or clearing the rubble.

The temblor has indeed opened up some important land issues. While on the one hand, it has shaken the eons-old passive relationship between the landlord and tenants, it has, in its wake, also touched upon the need for land reforms. For years tenants were working on lands which were not their own. In return, the landowners let them build homes and gave a share of the crops they grew. Sometimes they even got paid for their labour. But the earthquake changed the dynamics of this relationship. With their homes all but destroyed, the need to ensure that these vulnerable people are provided adequate shelter and at the same time allay the fears of owners that they would not be losing land has to be addressed.

But the situation is a lot more complex. The condition of provision of No Objection Certificate (NOC) has made tenants vulnerable. That is why there is a demand that this condition be done away with,” says a relief worker in Batagram. He says, “There is a strong feeling here, which is the hub of the dispute, that ERRA policies have divided people who were living together for generations.”

Uzma Gul, Zonal Programme Coordinator of Sungi says, “The landlords are refusing to give an NOC, which is a condition put by ERRA for tenants to claim compensation. That means relinquishing claim on their land. Without an NOC, the tenants cannot be given the money or restart building. It’s time to review the Tenancy Act of 1950 for without that ERRA cannot really do much in resolving the issue.”

But Bushra Gohar, Project Director, ActionAid, Emergency and Reconstruction Project, has a solution at hand. “This is an opportunity for the state to provide land to the landless instead of just concentrating on addressing relocation of those whose land has been declared unsuitable for reconstruction. The tension between the landlords and tenants, mainly in NWFP, can be resolved through land reforms which could start from the earthquake areas and spread throughout the country. The state must demonstrate its seriousness to address fundamental issues that have been exacerbated by the earthquake if it wants its slogan of ‘building better’ to have any meaning for the largely poor affected communities.”

”By the first week of September, of the 571,000 rural families, 500,000 had been assessed and a little over 400,000 individuals paid the second tranche of Rs75,000. Of these 80 per cent have even withdrawn the money from the banks and 17 per cent have started construction,” says the ERRA spokesperson. “The work is huge and capacity less. Our five-tiered transparency system, with numerous audit procedures, doesn’t let us take any short-cuts and thus the delay,” he admits.

However, there is something to cheer about for such an arduous process. The World Bank recently reviewed the procedures and work progress of ERRA and gave it a clean bill stating that they were more than satisfied with the way Authority was working.

However, much of the honest hard work carried out by ERRA has been marred by allegations of irregularities. The case of Altaf Saleem, ERRA’s chairman, still fresh in the mind, glares back menacingly. It’s become so high-profile that it cannot be shoved under the rug and dismissed. The World Bank’s ‘highly satisfactory to satisfactory’ nod does not then muster much confidence in the people.

Saleem’s business dealings are being questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). By its very association, the government agency itself is under scrutiny. According to the newspapers, the chairman has been charged ‘with hiding assets worth over Rs5 billion in parallel company books, operating at least six fictitious bank accounts, engaging in unlawful investments in real estate as well as the stock market, and various other financial irregularities’.

Not denying that there may have been cases of demand for ‘mithai’ in the first relief package of Rs25,000, the ERRA spokesperson charges that it was not frequent and was blown by the media. For the second tranche of Rs75,000, money is not exchanging hands either in cash nor cheque form. “The money goes directly into the bank. It also ensures that everyone is using banks. In a way the area has been thrust towards the banking system,” says Lt Gen. Nadeem Ahmed.

”If you ask me, we have not fared all that badly. As of today not a single school or a health facility is dysfunctional. We may not have the required infrastructure but provision of services is all available and better than before. If we have faltered twenty per cent that has been shown in our face repeatedly but the 80 per cent things done right remain conveniently forgotten. Our problem is that we’ve not been able to tell our side of the story,” says the ERRA spokesperson.

Among the many hurdles ERRA faced, a major one ––– was of the army being stretched out. “Back in February we held a conference with our partner organisations (POs). There was a huge rush and much enthusiasm with over a 100 of them ready to help us. They requested that they wouldn’t get involved with assessments but help in various seismically designed trainings for the artisans. But when we asked for proposals only 31 applied and when these were appraised, only nine had the capacity. We asked Nespak to do our assessment but because it was taking them between four to five months, we sought the assistance of the army as time was running out,” says the ERRA spokesperson.

In hindsight, he says, it was for the better as the POs were nowhere near what the army was able to manage. Of the 280 union councils, trainings in 130 UCs are being carried out by PO and 150 UCs by the army. I’m happy to say the Army trained over 60,000 artisans in the 150 UC given to them.”

But now that there is a leniency to building and design, what will be the use of training so many artisans? “In the urban areas and with regards to government infrastructure, including schools, health facilities and offices, these artisans will be needed as will cement and steel. The value of training remains intact,” he says.

Till the survivors get adequate housing (which may take between four to five years, say most relief organisations) many will have to be put up in transitional shelters this winter admits Lt.Gen Nadeem Ahmad. Not tents like last year but better housing. “In the 30,000 sq km of the affected area, you will hardly find tents except for some areas where the extremely vulnerable individuals are still camping out. This winter everyone will have a winter shelter,” he assures.

There is some truth in that. Going from Mansehra to Muzaffarabad one can see shiny specks. “These are sloping rooftops made of corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) sheets with which people have made their temporary shelters,” informs Jiwan Das, Emergency Programme Manager with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). The relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales raises funds from the Catholic community to respond to such emergencies. To make a one-room home about 12 sheets, 12ft x 3 ½ feet each, are needed.

”Logistically speaking, getting tents or CGI sheets means the same amount of labour. While tents had to be procured from various parts of Pakistan, even as far as Karachi, these iron sheets are easily available in Abbotabad and even Mansehra,” says Tariq Raza Masih, Community Development and Mobilisation Manager with Caritas Pakistan. He should know as working in the Emergency Response Support Team, he was involved with the distribution of 1200 tents, each tent weighing about 80-85 kg, from the 11th day after the earthquake.

”It’s not a new building material for these mountain people. Traditionally they have been using these for the roofs. It’s also cost-effective,” says Das, adding these can later be reused to make cattle pen and sheds for animals.

Those who have received the second instalment have to build their homes up to the plinth level to be able to qualify for the third instalment. ERRA is targeting to enable the survivors to build up to the plinth level by the end of December 2006.

However, there are two groups ––– those living in the urban areas and those in the red zone in Balakot and Muzaffarabad where rebuilding cannot be carried out as they lie on the fault lines, but says the ERRA spokesperson, they, too, will be compensated ‘so as for them not to feel left out’.

Since March, some 260,000 quake survivors have left relief camps for home. Among the unsheltered urban population, estimated to be around 70,000, some 50,000 will be accommodated in pre-fabricated shelters. For the 32,000 or so survivors still living in some 40 camps in Azad Kashmir, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 from villages high up on the mountains will be added when harsh winters will force them to seek shelter.

The numbers are not as mammoth compared to last year’s and the contingency plans are in order, say most relief organisations, but it may mean establishing tent villages like they did during monsoon rains in Jabba camp in Mansehra District. And among the survivors, who step into the reconstruction phase, it will be a stark reminder this year again of how natural calamities disproportionately affect women and intensify their vulnerability. It will show us again how difficult it will be for them to elbow their way in and access the benefits of reconstruction.

”There are many challenges to earthquake-affected women’s access to the benefits of reconstruction. Their limited mobility, lower education status and social expectations severely limit the extent to which they can access information and compensation,” says Malik.

For its part ERRA has undertaken some sound data collection and mapping of widows and women-headed households, the disabled and orphans. “For those widows who are leading households and don’t have the capacity or manpower to rebuild, we’ve made an exception. We have allowed philanthropists and organisations to come forward and provide them with whatever assistance ––– skilled labour, built homes, transport or provision of transport charges. At the same time, we’re also trying to involve them in micro-enterprise and other income generating schemes started by various organisations.” According to ERRA there were some 100,000 widows before the earthquake and 5,500 became widows when the temblor struck.

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