Pakistan Earthquake 2005

Covering the earthquake, the damage and the relief work in Pakistan.

Photographic catharsis of earthquake affected children

A photography exhibition at the Khaas Art Gallery shows the earthquake tragedy through the eyes of children, depicting their life in the tent villages of NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) that gave them temporary shelter.

Organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Communityspeak, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the exhibition displays the outcome of two photography workshops for children conducted in the beginning of 2006 in the tent villages of Manshera, NWFP and Muzzaffarabad. The workshops aimed at encouraging children to photograph their lives in the internally displaced people (IDP) camps. The trainers distributed 35 mm cameras and gave basic photography training. Through the photographs, children have described their life in the tent villages.

Pakistan quake zone still in ruins six months on

Earthquake survivors in Pakistan on Saturday were to mark six months since the disaster that killed more than 73,000 people, with reconstruction yet to start in most of the devastated area.

In the northwestern town of Balakot, that rebuilding work is never even going to happen. Authorities said last week they will relocate the ruined city and have banned further construction because it lies directly on a fault line. With around 90 percent of once-scenic Balakot’s houses, schools and shops reduced to rubble, residents living in tents are asking what they are meant to do for the next five or so years while the new town is built.

Earthquake-proof certificates to be imposed in Rawalpindi Cantt

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board has made it compulsory to get an earthquake-proof certificate prior to construction of new houses, shops and plazas in Cantt.

All construction engineers approved by the Pakistan Engineering Council will be able to issue these certificates for a fee of Rs 5,000 for five Marlas of land Rs 10,000 for 10 Marlas of land. Meanwhile, the Station Commander of the Cantonment Board, Sajjad Azam, on the recommendation of Executive Officer, Rafique Sial and Secretary Mian Mudassar Khan has aborted the motion to issue certificates for smaller houses.

Six months after earthquake, real work is just beginning

Six months after the devastating October 8 earthquake, the worst is over but the real hard work is just beginning, Dan Toole, the head emergency programmes for the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

Although people are starting to return to their villages to begin the task of rebuilding their shattered lives, tens of thousands are still in camps and time is running out, he told Reuters on a visit to London after visiting the stricken area.

“We may be six months on from the earthquake and through a mercifully mild winter, but there is still the monsoon to come and the next winter is only seven months away,” Toole said.

Government to launch owner-driven construction in earthquake zone

The government will launch a $2.4 billion assessment and payment programme from April 7 to ensure construction of 600,000 houses in quake zone before next winter, Altaf Saleem, chairman of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), said on Wednesday.

The government has already distributed the first installment of Rs 25,000 among 565,000 earthquake victims to start rebuilding their houses on owner-driven basis and teams has been constituted to assess and present recommendations for the second installment.

Explaining the rationale behind the owner-driven strategy, the chairman said that people have to be given incentives to start building shelter as early as possible. “The government will provide the money and they will provide speed,” he said.

Earthquake victims in Lahore leave for AJK and NWFP

Earthquake victims living in Lahore on the Punjab government’s invitation left for their native areas on Monday.

Saba Sadiq, adviser to the Punjab chief minister on social welfare, saw the 85 families off on the chief minister’s behalf at the Social Welfare Complex.

She also addressed the farewell ceremony, saying the Punjab had again played a role in helping people and had hosted the victims for four months. She said each family was also given three months of rations including flour, rice, oil, sugar, tea, milk powder, grains, pulses and spices. She also said every victim was given Rs 1,000.

Balakot to be relocated

Pakistan is to rebuild the city of Balakot in a completely new location after it was razed by last year’s Kashmir earthquake.

The city, home to 300,000 people before the quake, will be rebuilt in a safer location to modern design standards.

Pakistan also announced that it will shift focus from relief efforts to begin the rebuilding of devastated towns and villages on 7 April.

More than 73,000 people died and three million lost homes in the earthquake.

Balakot is currently located on a major geological fault line about 200km (120 miles) north of the country’s capital, Islamabad.

Amir Khan to visit earthquake survivor camp

British boxer Amir Khan will try to play his part in supporting this week the millions of survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake that struck several parts of Pakistan when he visits a camp of displaced people on the Pakistani side of Kashmir.

The 2004 Olympic silver medallist will visit residents of a camp near the city of Muzaffarabad on 6th April, the same place he visited on an earlier trip last December.

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