PakCast Commemorates One-Year Anniversary

In this week's podcast, PakCast commemorates the one-year anniversary of the earthquake. Hosts Nasir Aziz and Ethan Casey interview me on my trip to Pakistan and Kashmir.

Oxfam Reports 83 Percent of Affectees Still Homeless in Pakistan

[This transcript is from a PakCast radio report.]

“Sub kuch theek hai, bus humain chain nahi hai.” “Everything is fine, it’s just that we have no peace,” an elderly woman told me at Ambor tent camp in Muzaffarabad last month.

I was visiting the tent camp with Adnan Sattar, a volunteer with Strengthening Participatory Organization, a Pakistani NGO, who was delivering books and toys to a 5-year-old orphan. Lately, the child has been waking up and screaming at night, a symptom of post-traumatic stress, Sattar explained.

The tent dwellers moved into this open field one year ago, shortly following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked parts of Northern Pakistan and Kashmir. Muzaffarabad, a city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Balakot, Pakistan, have been the worst-hit areas. Over 80,000 people have died, and at least 500,000 of the 3.3 million displaced remain homeless. Oxfam has estimated that only 17% of affectees have begun rebuilding permanent homes.

In Muzaffarabad today, most buildings have structural damage and people are continuing to live in makeshift shelters. The government is making plans to rebuild the city, but those living in tents have word that it might be three years before they have homes again.

Still, the situation in Muzaffarabad is much better in comparison to Balakot. When I was in Balakot, reconstruction has completely halted. The area has been determined to be a “red zone,” because of its proximity to fault lines and instead, the city will be shifted 30 km away to Bakryal. Bakryal doesn’t exist today, but the government promises that it will be a model city that rivals Islamabad, the nation’s capital.

Earlier this week, Oxfam issued a report analyzing the earthquake reconstruction efforts. They recognized that it will take a lot longer than a year to rebuild this area, but did point out inefficiencies and inaction on the part of the government.

The Oxfam report put President Pervez Musharraf on the defense about the government reconstruction scheme. The government is not providing or building homes, but rather issuing checks in installments to affectees. Those checks must go towards proper earthquake-proof rebuilding, or further checks will not be issued. The money amounts to about 3000 US dollars and is not enough to cover the expenses of building a home, particularly given rising labor costs and the cost of transporting goods to remote villages.

TCF Relief Fund, an arm of the Pakistan-based NGO, The Citizens’ Foundation, has been providing training and free building materials to villagers so that they can rebuild their homes. Other NGOs have started similar schemes to help at least those who are most disadvantaged such as widows or the disabled. Their schemes allow affectees to use the government checks to cover transportation costs.

According to Oxfam, a third of affectees who have begun rebuilding have not complied with official guidelines so they won’t be getting and more government money to build their homes. In addition, corruption charges were brought up against the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, or ERRA, by leaders in the international NGO community, for not properly distributing relief money.

Musharraf adamantly denied such charges yesterday at the first annual ERRA meeting, calling Oxfam “doomsday predictors” for saying that 1.8 million people will be in tents this winter. He says that 95% of displaced affectees have returned home, but still asked that the international community foot an additional 800 million dollars for earthquake reconstruction to continue. The Pakistani Embassy in Washington has been unavailable to comment on how the funds collected thus far have been applied to relief efforts.

According to the president, all homes will be rebuilt by December 2008. But the NGOs, and the 66,000 people still living in makeshift shelters and in public parks-turned-tent camps, are skeptical.

For them, the greatest concern is survival as the Himalayan winter sets in.

Reporting for PakCast, this is Ambreen Ali in Washington D.C.