Pakistan Earthquake 2005

Foundation layed for New Balakot

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf presided on Monday over a ceremony to mark the beginning of construction of a new town to replace one almost completely destroyed in a 2005 earthquake.

The northern town of Balakot suffered the most severe damage in the Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan. Rather then rebuilding it on two fault lines, authorities are moving the town to a site 22 km (15 miles) away.

“Balakot has been totally destroyed and devastated. Now an excellent and properly designed town will be built in place of Balakot,” Musharraf said in a speech at the site of New Balakot.

2,000 Muzaffarabad buildings to be razed

The Muzaffarabad Municipal Corporation has initiated a project to demolish around 2,000 precarious private buildings in the quake-hit city.

“From today, we have kick-started the project, which, in fact lays, the basis of reconstruction in this town,” said the corporation’s Administrator Arshad Mahmood Abbasi at a news conference here on Saturday.

The project has two components: demolition of dangerous buildings and removal of their debris at a cost of Rs 210 million and augmentation of the civic body’s capacity through purchase of equipment and recruitment of around 35 staff.

Mr Abbasi said teams would get a form signed from the owners of the buildings to begin demolition in their presence.

Quake-hit people desperate for shelters, medicines

Survivors of the Oct 2005 earthquake in Balakot are facing extreme hardships due to the freezing temperature in the area. They are living through the hardest days and looking for a miracle to end their miseries, said journalist Shahjehan Khan, who still lives in a damaged tent in the town.

The number of patients has increased due to the inclement weather conditions.

There is one hospital in the town constructed by the Paktel company, but the patients remain unattended due to the absence of doctors and paramedical staff.

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker visits earthquake affected areas

Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla met survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake during a visit to the mountains of Azad Kashmir on Wednesday.

The couple, on their first trip to Pakistan amid tight security, toured reconstruction projects in Pattika, a small town in the Neelam Valley near the epicentre of the October 2005 quake that killed some 74,000 people.

“Our sympathies are with you,” reporters overheard Charles telling one of the residents they met on their three-hour trip. Most of the projects in the town are UK-funded.

U.S. to train 30,000 teachers in Pakistani quake areas

The United States will train 30,000 teachers and build 50 schools in quake affected areas of Pakistan, the U.S ambassador said on Sunday, the first anniversary of an earthquake that killed 73,000 people.

Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker made the announcement during the inauguration by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of the first school built by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Dadar village in North West Frontier Province.

“The school buildings are the hardware and they have to have the software to go with it and that means the teachers,” Crocker said while announcing plans to build 50 schools and train 30,000 teachers in Frontier province and Pakistani Kashmir.

Quake survivors stage anti-graft protest

Hundreds of survivors of last year’s earthquake in Pakistan staged an anti-graft protest in the capital on Saturday, accusing reconstruction officials of corruption.

Waving placards reading “Stop taking bribes”, “Spend the winter with us” and “Build our homes before snowfall”, the demonstrators marched from parliament to the office of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra).

The protest came a day before the first anniversary of the earthquake. “For the past four and a half months, I have received not a single penny,” said Gohar Rehman, a father of five who had come from Muzaffarabad.

UN seeking $45m for winter operations

The United Nations is seeking $45 million for winter operations, including helicopters to help out the affected of the last year’s earthquake in Pakistan.

So far, about two-thirds of that sum has been made available, said a UN press release issued on Saturday, a day ahead of the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that shook the northern parts of the country in 2005.

There is also concern about access to people living in remote locations above 5,000 feet and along the lower valleys. United Nations air operations will be re-established in November for four critical winter months, which will allow some access to areas of concern, especially the Allai, Kaghan, Leepa and Neelum valleys. “As winter approaches, work continues to ensure the survival of those affected by last year’s massive earthquake,î a UN spokesman said.

One Year Later, Earthquake Survivors Still Lack Proper Shelter

A year after last October’s massive South Asian earthquake, aid agencies are warning that nearly two-million people are facing a second Himalayan winter without proper shelter. VOA’s Benjamin Sand revisits one of the communities hit hardest by the October 8, 2005 quake and files this report on the disaster’s devastating legacy.

A song tells of the life and death of one of the quake’s victims.

“When I died,” the girl sings, “my body was broken and spread throughout the land. My family could not find me and I left without being buried.”

Pakistan winds up tent camp in earthquake zone

Authorities in Pakistani Kashmir on Tuesday began winding up one of the first informal tent camps established for survivors of last year’s deadly earthquake.

The closure of the camp set up in Jalalabad Park in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, came days ahead of the first anniversary of the earthquake.

The camp was opened on October 9, a day after the quake struck northern Pakistan, killing more than 73,000 people and leaving more than three million destitute. “Yes, today we have started shifting people to another place because the government wants to revive the park,” camp manager Maqbool Shah told Reuters.

New quakeproof building code for Pakistan soon

The National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK) is all set to prepare a new building code for Pakistan to protect buildings against future damages caused by high intensity earthquakes. It has already prepared a building code for Islamabad, AJK and some parts of the NWFP that were hit by last year’s earthquake.

The new building code will be implemented by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad for all new constructions in the city. NESPAK has also submitted the code to the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) to ensure that it is followed in the construction works in the affected areas, said NESPAK Managing Director Chaudhry Karamatullah in a presentation regarding the rehabilitation and reconstruction schemes in the earthquake-affected areas. The presentation was chaired by Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi on Tuesday.