MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 14: Thirty thousand quake-hit families in country’s wintry mountains are being taught to build shelter from the rubble of their homes under a new UN programme launched on Monday. Survivors will receive tool kits, iron sheeting for roofs and technical details on how to build makeshift homes to protect them from the coming winter, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said.

“People need shelter now. It’s important to promote local solutions so that temporary homes are affordable, generate jobs, and are accepted by the community,” UNDP country director Haoliang Xu said in a statement.

The scheme is a way of overcoming the chronic lack of winterized tents and adequate shelter for the estimated three million people left homeless by the Oct 8 quake.

International and local architects had come up with easy-to-build designs featuring salvaged materials like wooden beams and local items such as sandbags to make warm, aftershock-resistant walls, the UNDP said.—AFP