ISLAMABAD Three year on, a devastating earthquake rattled parts of Azad Kashmir and NWFP, life is still a nightmare for the survivors, with almost quarter of a million families yet to get full subsidy for reconstruction of their destroyed houses.

The missing targets, unfulfilled commitments, procedural flaws, dilapidated infrastructure and rising inflationary pressure is adding to the woes of the quake survivors, many of whom had no other option but to migrate.

The data provided by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) reveals that 4,62,900 families received the first installment of the housing subsidy, and the number on recipients kept on dropping in all the three remaining tranches. 368,238 of them (99.66 percent) could get the second installment. 368,238 families (79.55) got three installments. The number of families who received all the four installments was 218,317 (47.16 percent). That means that 52.84 percent could not access the last tranche.

According to the data, out of the total 610,716 destroyed houses, including 101,091 partially destroyed ones, construction of 409,613 houses has been completed while another 118,406 houses were under construction. Construction on 35,972 houses was yet to start.

An amount of Rs 59.68 billion has so far been disbursed for rural housing subsidy.

In the education sector, out of the total 5344 schools, there were plans to construct 4052 by the end of the current year, which was revised to 3849. So far only 175 of them have been completed and 1282 are under construction.

The students are thus forced to study in non-winterized tents posing health hazards to them with the winter season approaching.

Out of the total 307 health facilities destroyed three years back, only 38 have been rebuilt. 237 of them were planned to be built before the end of the current year. None of the 12 District Headquarter Hospital has been reconstructed and seven of them are still in pre-construction stage. Only 2 out of 11 Tehsil Headquarter Hospitals, 12 out of 49 Rural Health Centres and 22 out of 224 Basic Helath Unites have so far been completed.

The promise of restoring all the 4080 destroyed water supply schemes by the end of 2008 also remained unfulfilled and only 1466 of them were completed.

Likewise, 66 out of the total 628 sanitation schemes have been completed.
None of the 23 solid waste management system sites affected by the quake have been completed and so far work has commenced on only seven of them.

The transport sector is similar to all others where out of the 7000km of roads that were to be built or rehabilitated not even ten percent are complete 3 years after the earthquake.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) has so far disbursed over Rs15 billion for reconstruction of seismically-safe housing units, health & education facilities and capacity building and infrastructure schemes in 34 union councils of NWFP & AJK which were badly damaged in October 8, 2005 earthquake.

Till the third anniversary of the tragedy falling on October 8, 2008, PPAF has disbursed this amount through its six partner organizations for reconstruction of 121,448 seismically-safe housing units out of total 122,332  damaged, 19 health and education facilities, and capacity building and infrastructure schemes in Erra-assigned 34 union councils of AJK and NWFP. 

The housing reconstruction strategy followed by PPAF remains focused on training maximum number of craftsmen and house-owners to follow ERRA`s guidelines in letter and spirit. To date over 90,000 individuals including partner organizations` staff (engineers & social organizers), craftsmen, carpenters, masons, house owners, etc. have been trained in seismically-safe housing reconstruction techniques and block manufacturing as specified by ERRA.

While reconstruction of houses formed the major component of PPAF`s reconstruction and rehabilitation project worth over US $ 300 million, focus has also been on the long-term revival of the affected communities by allocating significant funds for non-housing infrastructure, capacity-building and livelihoods schemes. The World Bank has provided major share of funds for reconstruction and rehabilitation activities which is US $ 248 million including US $ 5 million for Earthquake Disability Project.

PPAF is also engaged in the reconstruction of 19 state-of-the-art health and education facilities (out of which six have already commissioned) in the quake-affected areas with the financial support of Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) of the US ($12 million).

Additionally, under International Fund for Agricultural Development ($26 million) and KfW ($17 million) - sponsored projects, poor households have been earmarked for provision of one `basic livestock unit` (equivalent to one cow or buffalo), or a basic herd of sheep and goats of an equivalent value. Households that had either lost livestock in earthquake or were amongst the poorest in the locality have been prioritized.

The partner organizations of PPAF, following basic principles of social mobilization which are inclusion, cohesion and accountability, have successfully mobilized community members to form community organizations. The formation of community organizations is an ongoing process and the community activists are receiving community management skills trainings in affected areas to take charge of their own development.