PESHAWAR, March 14: The removal of rubble from government buildings in the five earthquake-hit districts of the NWFP has become a major hurdle in the reconstruction phase, officials said.

Sources in the Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction Authority (PERA) told Dawn that the government had yet to come up with a plan to remove thousands of tons of rubble of public sector buildings, ruined by the devastating tremor on Oct 8, 2005.

An official said: “The reconstruction process will start when sites are cleared from rubble. The government is still indecisive as to which department or agency will remove the debris and where it will be dumped.”

Initially, the sources said, it was proposed that the provincial Works and Services Department would clear these sites from the rubble but it could not materialise.

Now it had been discussed at various forums to ask the district government to carry out the task, they said.

Officials said that delay in the removal of the debris would affect the upcoming reconstruction phase, while in many areas the government did not have an alternative site for construction.

“The reconstruction plan has been stymied by confusion and lack of clarity as both federal and provincial governments have yet to finalise the action plan although funds are available,” said a senior official.

He said that another hurdle in the reconstruction process was that federal agencies had still not shared information with provincial and district authorities about the Geographic Information System (GIS) report, which had been jointly prepared by the army and Turkish and Chinese seismic experts.

He said: “Reconstruction in the area will depend upon the report.”

The 6.7 magnitude earthquake had destroyed 3,984 units in the educational sector, 94 health units, 991 units of water supply, 174 units of sanitation and 65 per cent of other public sector buildings. Abbottabad, Mansehra, Kohistan, Battagram and Shangla had been declared affected districts where about 22,625 people had been killed and 40,139 wounded. Due to destruction of school buildings, the government with the assistance of Unicef and other agencies set up 735 tent schools.

Officials said that after abolition of relief camps, all tent schools would be shifted to their respective communities.

The Army Engineer Corps has removed the debris of public sector buildings in Balakot and a few other areas in Mansehra and Battagram districts.

“We asked the district government and other departments concerned to lift debris from public sector buildings,” said an army officer in Mansehra, saying that the Engineer Corps had cleared all roads in the affected areas and also removed debris from various sites in Balakot town and other areas.

An official in the provincial Works and Services Department said that proposal was under consideration to hand over the task to district governments and the department would provide technical assistance if needed.

He said that the district government had yet to identify sites in the hilly regions for dumping debris, and added that the District Coordination Officer, Mansehra, had recently sought provision of funds for the disposal of rubble.

Sources said that the provincial government had issued directives to the district government to identify sites for the disposal of debris.

Officials said that the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) did not provide details about building codes for the area.

They said that the government would construct new buildings after the approval of building by-laws. ERRA had only approved four types of houses for the quake-affected areas in the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.