MANSEHRA: Even 12 years after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Balakot and Garlat red zone, infrastructure in the region has yet to be rehabilitated completely.

Until now, around 70 per cent of the infrastructure has been rebuilt, claims the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra).

The earthquake’s survivors regretted that 12th anniversary of the calamity was to be marked tomorrow (Sunday) but work on the Rs13 billion New Balakot city housing project launched in 2007 for them hadn’t been completed.

A ‘reconstruction progress summary’ issued by the Erra revealed that 6,963 educational institutions, heath facilities and other public sector infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were destroyed by the 2005 earthquake and 5,110 of them had been rehabilitated.

It said 50 per cent of the total funds were being diverted to the education sector and that 39 per cent of the schools and colleges in five earthquake-affected districts, including Mansehra, Abbottabad, Battagram, Torghar and Kohistan, continued to be in ruins.

The report said 2,925 educational institutions were destroyed in the earthquake and 1,771 of them had been handed over to the education department after reconstruction.

In health sector, 66 per cent of the damaged health facilities in the province have been rehabilitated as 105 of the 158 damaged hospitals, basic health units and rural health centres have been reconstructed.

The reconstruction of the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra, which was scheduled to be completed in 2012, has yet to happen.

When contacted, Erra deputy chairman Brigadier Abdul Bakar Bajwa said they had limited financial resources. “Though short of funds, we’ve reconstructed around 70 percent of the infrastructure,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2017