Pakistan Earthquake 2005

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

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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.

“We are in limbo. What happens next?” said 40-year-old Abdul Waheed, who lost his mother, one of his daughters and his sister-in-law in the 7.6-magnitude quake on October 8.Waheed’s jewellery store on the high street is one of about 10 shops in the entire city that survived the earthquake. But his house and other properties that he owns were all destroyed. “Until they make the new city the government must give us earthquake-proof shelters so we can live there for a few years,” he added. Other traders have built precarious temporary shops using timber, corrugated iron and in some cases plastic sheets made of candy wrappers, but they are surrounded by a wasteland of concrete debris. A number of them held a protest march in Balakot after traditional Muslim prayers on Friday.

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