next phase
Lessons not learned
Schools in Abbottabad and Garhi Habibullah have a sorry tale to tell
By Javed Afridi
Inaugurating the newly constructed building of Government High School No.4 Abbottabad will be one of the engagements of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his visit to the quake affected districts of NWFP.

'Aid is history now'
Lt. General Nadeem Ahmad, Deputy Chairman ERRA, on the progress so far
By Amna Yousaf Khokhar
The News on Sunday: Why is the reconstruction taking so much time?
Lt. General Nadeem Ahmad: It was a huge task which could not have been done in one and a half year, in any part of the world. Even the Japanese took more than 10 years to reconstruct and rehabilitate their quake-hit areas. The Tsunami-affected areas are nowhere near us and as far as Katrina is concerned they have not yet started.

Another view
A visit to quake-hit Azad Kashmir inspires one to know if the process of rebuilding will lead to a societal change
By Ghazi Salahuddin
We were in an unfinished rural health centre in Chakothi when the rain suddenly picked up. A pleasant titter-tatter of raindrops on corrugated sheets in that somewhat dreamy environment revived in my mind the memories of Urdu short stories I had read in my early youth. That such romantic thoughts should get in the way of an earnest tour of the earthquake affected areas of Azad Kashmir was, I feel, a measure of the change that has come about in just two years.

Uphill task
Potable water remains one of the most crucial needs in the quake-hit areas despite the SRDP scheme
Excited over the completion of the Sarhad Rural Development Programme-initiated water scheme, the earthquake survivors in hard-to-reach mountainous Bhogarmong Union Council are calling it the most significant thing to happen to them since the birth of the country.

October 8, 2005 meant so many contradictory things -- the trauma of more than 75,000 deaths and the fight for relief goods among survivors, loss of life and endurance, disease and aid, slow rebuilding and volunteerism. The list of thoughts that stayed in the collective memory is endless, before they started to be forgotten. The affectees, as we know them, were thoroughly remembered in the first winter and slightly less so in the next year.

Two years ago, around this time, the world changed for people in NWFP and Azad Kashmir when they were hit by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the richter scale. The destruction was complete.

Two years hence we decide to find out the veracity of claims of having moved beyond rehabilitation to reconstruction. What has remained constant between then and now is that the accounts today are as full of contradictions as then. Guided tours in helicopters may leave a totally different impression on people. While those who want to see the ground reality are likely to have a different experience.

A shocking contrast has emerged in the claims made by ERRA and PERRA and the actual stories narrated by people of problems relating to housing, water and rebuilding of schools. Azad Kashmir does not much figure here, except only briefly, but NWFP does. The experience of reconstruction may be entirely different in the two areas. Some accounts from NWFP are earth-shattering. Aftershocks, shall we say.

Najmun Nisa -- who lost her husband and son in the devastating earthquake two years back -- shall be observing the 2nd death anniversary of her dear ones, holed up in her claustrophobic tent-house.

Nisa is one of the 120 family heads of the Garlat area of Balakot who has been hoping for a shelter-house for the past two years. Prior to the earthquake, she owned a well-constructed eight-marla, two-storey house which was completely destroyed, and she and her two daughters were compelled to brave the vagaries of the weather in the tent.

"Life has become miserable because I am diabetic and getting old," she tells TNS with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Sitting on a chaarpai beside her tent-house, Nisa wishes she had been killed with her husband and son.

TNS learnt from sources that the ERRA had assigned a UK-based firm, namely Dyno Shells Ltd, the task to provide shelter to some 350 afflicted families in quake-rattled Garlat Union Council. It laid foundations (cemented floors) at some 120 places, upon which the shelter houses were supposed to be erected. However, after doing that, Dyno Shells suddenly disappeared from the scene, leaving the quake survivors in the lurch, because no other firm was equipped to install shelter-houses on these specified floors.

The matter was brought to the notice of ERRA authorities who, according to Nisa, cancelled the remaining 230 shelter-erecting quota to Dyno Shells and handed it over to another firm which successfully completed the project.

Dyno Shells Ltd, on the other hand, holds the authorities of ERRA responsible for all problems. Requesting anonymity, a representative of the firm in Balakot informs TNS that ERRA gave a contract of 1,000 shelter-houses in Balakot, which was funded by Saudi Public Assistance.

"The Dyno Shells got a German-made sample (of a shelter-house) approved by ERRA and Saudi donors. After getting the go-ahead, we placed the order of importing shelter-houses. In this connection, a shipment reached the Karachi port early this year, but by that time ERRA had changed its mind and refused to give a no-objection certificate to the shelter-houses," the source says

The source adds that they were given the contract of installing PVC houses in the quake-hit area but later they were asked to erect shelter-houses having sandwich panels. These panels contain thermopore, sandwiched between two sheets.

He further informs that it was July 21, 2007, when Dyno Shell signed a new contract with ERRA regarding the provision of shelter-houses of sandwich panels.

"Since the contract, we've installed some 52 shelter-houses in Balakot and should reach our target by the end of November."

Political wrangling among the tehsil nazim and union council nazims as well as among union council nazims and opposition councillors has also contributed to deteriorating the situation, with the poor quake victims on the receiving end.

Like most residents of the area, Nisa also has a plethora of grievances against the nazim of Garlat Union Council who, she says, was generous enough to arrange shelter-houses for his voters, but those who voted against him had to face the consequences.

Likewise, Tehsil Nazim Junaid Qasim Shah has also hindered the smooth flow of funds to the Garlat Union Council, for the nazim belongs to the opposition group, says Rasheed ur Rahman, a social worker from Balakot who lost his father and a niece in the earthquake.

However, Nisa appreciates the Punjab government for granting a stipend of Rs 6,000 per month to every widow in the quake-hit zone. This, she says, is the only source of money for her three-member family.

Her teenage daughter Bushra, a private student of Bachelor of Arts, says that her family has not yet recovered from the trauma.

Haji Nazeer, 55, a retired shelterless employee of the Utility Stores Corporation, claims that he often contacted the ERRA chief in Balakot, Major Pervez, for redress of his problems vis-a-vis the provision of shelters but to no avail.

He says that he also called on the Islamabad-based higher official of ERRA, Brigadier Waqar, who was on a visit to Balakot, and apprised him of the situation. "But it was an exercise in futility," he says.

The nonavailability of shelter-houses is also badly affecting the education system in Balakot. The previously constructed primary school for boys of Garlat is now a four-tent school. The quake flattened the school that once boasted seven rooms, furnished with benches and chairs, three latrines, a lawn, and a boundary wall. But now the students have no option but to attend the classes, sitting on a mat in harsh weather. In summer the temperature in Balakot rises to 45 degree Celsius, while the area witnesses freezing cold in winter after the snow covers the adjacent mountains of Balakot.

10 years old Hamza, a student of Grade five at the tent-school, says that it is hard for him to attend classes in the chilled weather.

Sabir Husain, a senior teacher at the tented primary school, admits that it is difficult to impart quality education to the students in the absence of a conducive environment.

He adds that owing to these problems the students of his school will not be able to catch up with the students in other schools of the province.

Husain says that attendance in harsh weather conditions is reduced to 10 per cent. Besides, the courses could not be completed on time. "This is why we are usually quite lenient while checking papers. I don't approve of this exercise, but we are compelled to do so," the 44-year-old teacher tells TNS.

Husain is of the view that the Unicef-sponsored, government-run school should follow in the footprints of the non-governmental organisations like Tameer-i-Millat and Khairun Nas Trust which established two well-equipped shelter-schools in Qadirabad area of the Garlat Union Council.

Same is the case with the girls school of Garlat which also functions at a tented camp and has some 250 students and nine female teachers.

Undoubtedly, the October 8 earthquake was a colossal natural calamity, but the non-provision of shelter-houses to quake survivors -- even after the lapse of two years -- is still a question mark on the performance of the army-dominated ERRA.

Two years after the devastating October 8 earthquake that destroyed the historic and scenic Balakot town, the first concrete measures are being taken to start developing the New Balakot City at a new site located 15 kilometres northeast of Mansehra city. The Islamabad-based Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) has just advertised vacancies including project director, engineers, clerks and drivers to set up the project management unit for the Rs 12 billion scheme. Attractive salaries have been offered for these positions to undertake the construction of a model city for settling the earthquake-affected population of old Balakot, which has been declared as seismically dangerous as it is sited on the so-called 'red zone' prone to earthquakes.

Acquiring land for the project, sited not very far from old Balakot off the main Mansehra-Naran-Jhalkad (MNJ) road, was tough and tiresome. Though most of the required land has now been acquired, the government is still facing some resistance in taking physical control of part of the land where people are dwelling. The contractor is on site with his machinery and is reported to have started levelling the land but extensive work would only begin once the hamlets dotting the vast landscape are relocated and the area is cleared.

Land acquisition for New Balakot City was the responsibility of the district administration of Mansehra. It was started by former district coordination officer (DCO) Shakil Qadir and completed by his successor Captain (Retd) Munir Azam. Talking to The News on Sunday from Mansehra, Munir Azam said 11,436 kanals of land had been acquired for the purpose while another 4,168 kanals of government-owned, partly forested land was available for future expansion of the city. He said 500-1,000 kanals of this forest department-owned land is mountainous and could be utilised to build a hill park for recreation and tourism.

The acquired land includes 5,388 kanals in Dhudial area, where the Hazara University is located, and 6,000-plus kanals in Mangan, the name given to the place in revenue records and comprising famous villages such as Bakrial. In fact, the location of the New Balakot City is often referred to as Bakrial.

According to Munir Azam, some 3,500 to 4,000 families that had houses in old Balakot and cannot live there legally after declaration of the town as part of the 'red zone' are eligible to own plots in New Balakot City. Lists of these households have been prepared and they are known to everyone. He said plots of five, seven and ten marlas would be developed and allotted to the affectees.

Prices of land in the area have risen sharply. Initially, one heard offers that land for New Balakot City at Bakrial would be given free. Obviously, these were emotional statements given at a time when there was much sympathy for quake-affectees. When land requisition started, one kanal was available for Rs 20,000 or so. The rate kept rising and now the price of land in the surroundings of Bakrial too has gone up. By the time the plots are developed, Munir Azam estimated that prices would range from Rs 2 million to Rs 2.8 million.

Villagers dwelling in sparsely-populated Bakrial and other places falling in New Balakot City were offered incentives to encourage them to vacate the land. Apart from the price of land that they were selling, they would be provided fully developed plots. Until then, they would be given temporary accommodation in the same area. The ERRA would be building transitional shelter for these families, including the 400 to 500 still living there is isolated hamlets and reluctant to give up 'qabza' (control) of their ancestral land. In the long run, they would get to live in a modern city with all facilities.

If one were to believe ERRA officials, New Balakot City would be a model city in the NWFP. DCO Munir Azam went a step further and claimed it would have amenities comparable to Islamabad. It would have all basic facilities and much more. It would have quick access to Mansehra and the Mansehra-Naran-Jhalkad road and the narrow road to Dhudial would be widened to 100-feet to facilitate traffic onward to the Karakoram Highway. Munir Azam said every household from old Balakot was ready to move to New Balakot City. "I don't think any family would prefer old Balakot to New Balakot City once the latter is developed. Not even one per cent of the old residents have shown reluctance to relocate," he argued when told that some Balakotis had rebuilt old homes and shops in old Balakot or were in the processing of rebuilding.

The News on Sunday: Precisely when was PERRA formed and what mandate was assigned to it?

Dr Fazlur Rahman: It was on April 1, 2006, a few months after the earthquake, that the constitution of PERRA was notified, while formal work was started in July, 2006.

Initially, we had to face tough times, as everything around was destroyed and everyone affected. We had no proper mechanism and a skeleton staff. The complicated nature of work further affected our progress. Twice during my presentations, I asked the NWFP Assembly to help us in the procedural delays. We developed an entire planning and development sector and thereafter imparted training to staffers to carry out activities.

TNS: What kind of projects has PERRA been working on?

DFR: PERRA has been working on two kinds of projects -- pledged projects and those funded by the ERRA (Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority). The pledged projects are those funded by non-governmental organisations and executed by PERRA, whereas the ERRA-funded are our own projects. A total of 1944 pledged projects were approved in the five quake-affected districts of the province, in sectors such as education, health, housing, water and sanitation, etc., of which 379 have been completed, while 427 are in progress.

Similarly, as many as 1959 ERRA-funded projects were approved, of which 355 are in progress.

TNS: What are the problems hampering a timely execution and completion of the rehabililtation projects?

DFR: One major problem we have faced is a lack of cooperation and participation from the community. The local community created problems for us, particularly in arranging land for different projects. The local politicians, instead of mobilising the community to participate in different projects, would provoke them to create hurdles in our way. That is why, a lot of rehabilitation projects are still lying incomplete.

In addition, PERRA has had to deal with a shortage of trained staff.

TNS: There have been complaints about the disbursement of housing cash grants?

DFR: Actually, the army and the ERRA made their own assessment of the damages, while PERRA disbursed a sum of Rs 28,251.375 among some eight lakh victims. There may be some missings on our part, but basically those who complained wanted to get more than their due cheques.

TNS: What do you consider as your major achievement?

DFR: Developing a proper mechanism and staff besides capacity building of the youth are our major achievements. When we started work we had only a skeleton staff of 8-10. Now we have a full-fledged development planning department. We have overcome the problem of skilled manpower, and you will see the difference in the next six months inshallah.

TNS: What are the areas you need to focus on now?

DFR: I believe we should focus more attention on community mobilisation and ensure their participation in the rehabilitation and reconstruction process.

Inaugurating the newly constructed building of Government High School No.4 Abbottabad will be one of the engagements of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his visit to the quake affected districts of NWFP.

The building was severely hit by the earthquake and while much of the structure had collapsed, authorities declared the rest as dangerous for use. The school was temporarily established at a public park -- Jinnah Park, adjacent to Abbottabad Hockey Stadium -- and was very much there till date.

Today, a spacious building awaits the institution, when the prime minister would hand over its keys to the principal on the second anniversary of the disaster. "Constructed by a Turkish firm at a cost of around $520,000, the school has all the facilities one can wish for in a school building," said Syed Salahuddin Shah, Principal of the school.

The principal was however concerned about hundreds of other education institutions as well and urged the government to concentrate more on them. "There are schools that would even need the broken furniture I am to leave behind. They request me for these broken utensils," he said.

According to government statistics, more than 2200 educational institutions in NWFP were partially or completely destroyed by the devastating October 8 earthquake and government had directed to vacate the partially damaged institutions too -- out of fear of their collapse due to aftershocks that continued for the next two months. Perhaps, Government High School No.4 is the only school that could manage to rise above the ground level.

"As far as education is concerned, government was not there in the initial phase nor did we see anything done in this regard during the past two years," said Tahir Ali, principal of a public sector primary school, adding that education skipped the priority list of the government after a nominal number of tents were made available to schools that year.

Individuals provided all these resources in their private capacity with considerable help from non-governmental organisations and were mostly restricted to a few tents and some furniture, meant for the transitory period and which were never enough to provide for around one million students.

Government Girls High School No.2 is yet another school, badly damaged by the earthquake where only one of the 13 rooms is safe for use. The institution with 750 girl students is in the limits of the town municipal corporation that has rented the adjacent shops. "Even the shopkeepers come and request us to do something about the building as they too fear for their life," Miss Munazza, vice principal, told TNS.

"We have made countless requests to every government department including both the federal and provincial earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction authorities (ERRA and PERRA), but nothing has came out of it," she complained and added that dozens of officials had paid visit to the institute during the last two years and nothing more was done than marking places here and there.

"Disheartened by the government attitude, we wrote letters to parents last year, telling them that under the circumstances it was not possible for us to maintain quality education at the school and that they should therefore take away their children to a better facility," she said.

The vice principal said that very few people took away their children from the school and most of them stayed back saying they had no other option. "They felt content with any amount of education imparted to them under the circumstances," she said.

Riffat Aziz, Principal Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Garhi Habibullah said that the school completely collapsed during the October 8 disaster killing 67 of its occupants including two lady teachers, 64 girl students and a senior clerk of the school. "Though the school was provided a sheltered building within the first 20 days of the tragedy, no one looked backed after that."

The aluminum structure comprising nine rooms, she said, was raised by a politician; Jehangir Khan Tareen. "The structure did provide us relief at that time, but after all it is a temporary arrangement and you cannot expect the children to remain in these conditions for years," she said. "The enrollment too had increased manifold since then."

She revealed that the number of students enrolled today were more than they were before October 8. "After Balakot and Naran were declared 'red zones' families of those areas have shifted down here and our enrollment have reached the figure of 1000 as compared to the earlier figure of 740. It has now become extremely difficult for us to run the affairs of the school."

She said that six tents were acquired to provide for the increasing number of students, two of which were swept away when an army helicopter happened to land at a nearby place. "We have, somehow managed to erect them again, but they are badly damaged," she said. She too complained that her requests fall on deaf ears and nothing has even been pledged.

Conditions of the nearby Government Primary School are even worse and almost the entire school attended their classes in open. "Not even the debris of our damaged school is removed during the last two year," Almas Khan, acting principal of the Government Primary School, Garhi Habibullah, said.

He said that the school administration virtually begged for tents time and again for they very soon become worn out due to the extreme temperatures of the area and frequent rains. Khan said that the available tents too were in bad shape and could not provide shelter from rain, sun and cold winter, which was in the offing.

The News on Sunday: Why is the reconstruction taking so much time?

Lt. General Nadeem Ahmad: It was a huge task which could not have been done in one and a half year, in any part of the world. Even the Japanese took more than 10 years to reconstruct and rehabilitate their quake-hit areas. The Tsunami-affected areas are nowhere near us and as far as Katrina is concerned they have not yet started.

When such huge tasks are handed over to a newly-established organisation, problems are multiplied by a 100. And when donors want transparency, everything has to go through a very elaborate procurement process, which takes time.

TNS: There have been reports that donor countries are not satisfied with the way their money is being spent?

GNA: All donors have certain requirements for transparency. They want everything to be transparent, transparent, and transparent. When they are giving money, they really breathe down your neck. So in such a situation you cannot make shortcuts.

TNS: If ERRA is doing so much in the quake-hit areas then why are a large number of people complaining of no government cooperation?

GNA: I do not have problem with that because a person who went through a trauma and lost everything will keep crying that he did not get anything from the government. Otherwise nobody will listen to him.

That is natural and psychological and I understand that. One more thing you need to understand here is that when ERRA started working, the banking system was zero. How could we open a large number of bank accounts in no time? Then people, especially women, did not have Identity Cards (ID). We had to request NADRA to make their ID cards as early as it was possible.

TNS: With so much aid and funds what has ERRA to show for?

GNA: We are working in 12 sectors, housing, education, health, livelihood, road building, power, water and sanitation, telecommunication and making government-sector buildings, environment, livelihood, social protection and tourism. We are also training doctors, teachers and skilled workers.

TNS: On the second anniversary of October 8, how would you assess the performance of ERRA?

GNA: Our housing programme is one of the world's best and has been acknowledged by all donor countries including the World Bank. Housing is no more a problem now. We have built 97 pre-habilitation facilities, 100 schools and all are functional. In water and sanitation sector we have completed 788 out of 4200 schemes.

TNS: But a huge number of affectees are complaining that they did not get any assistance for housing?

GNA: As of today we have only 6600 people living in proper camps and these are those people who have lost their lands and are extremely vulnerable because of their disability. For them we have already started a special landless policy programme in which we are giving Rs 5000 to all the landless people so that they can buy land on immediate ownership basis.

TNS: Why is development of New Balakot City taking so much time?

GNA: Town building is not an easy thing. It takes lot of time to be planned. Japanese suggested they would plan it in three years but we told them we want to finish it in three years. The New Balakot city will take 30 months to complete and its total developmental cost is US$220 million.

TNS: There have been reports of shortage of doctors and teachers in the newly-built facilities?

GNA: So far we have not felt the shortage of doctors and teachers. But to meet the expected human resource shortage in future, we have already started doing an assessment exercise to hire required staff according to the facility's capacity.

TNS: What strategy has been developed for the livelihood of people or are they still dependent on aid?

GNA: Aid is history now. On March 31, 2006 we officially finished our relief because we didn't want the people to be dependent on aid. We gave them fertilizers, seeds, agriculture equipment, and trained them in different skills. But we extended it for another six months for extremely vulnerable and landless families.

TNS: There were reports that ERRA has requested for more funds?

GNA: Out of the US$3.7 billion funds for reconstruction process, we have spent so far over US$1 billion. Here you need to understand that we did not request for more funds. We withdrew money from the banks only when we needed it in accordance wih our capacity to spend it. Why should I be paying the mark-up when the money is not being spent anywhere.

TNS: There have been reports of misappropriation and cheques were also bounced back?

GNA: There was not even a single misappropriation case and this I can tell you with full confidence. ERRA is the only organisation in Pakistan whose audit report is available on our website. As regards the bouncing back of cheques, it is not misappropriation. Cheques were bounced back because the names were either misspelt or miswritten. So, the banks refused to encash them.

We were in an unfinished rural health centre in Chakothi when the rain suddenly picked up. A pleasant titter-tatter of raindrops on corrugated sheets in that somewhat dreamy environment revived in my mind the memories of Urdu short stories I had read in my early youth. That such romantic thoughts should get in the way of an earnest tour of the earthquake affected areas of Azad Kashmir was, I feel, a measure of the change that has come about in just two years.

Let me also confess that I was not expecting such a transformation when I embarked on that exciting trip to check out the activities of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) about one month ago. We do have reasons to be cynical about the capacity of our official agencies in dealing with a crisis of such high magnitude. But, the earthquake of October 8, 2005, was certainly a defining moment in the consciousness of our nation, and it generated responses and initiatives that need to be properly understood and analysed.

This tour was arranged for Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Foundation (MKRF) and a Geo TV media team as part of the run-up to the second anniversary of one of the most devastating natural tragedies in living memory. One important purpose was to look at the prospect of setting up an MKRF institution.

We were fortunate to have the company of Lt General Nadeem Ahmad, Deputy Chairman, ERRA. In fact, he was piloting the MI-17 military helicopter with captain Major Ihsan and co-pilot Major Ali during all our sorties that day. This meant that we had the most authoritative commentary on conceptual as well as operational details of ERRA's activities. I was touched by the personal involvement of General Nadeem in so many projects and by his rapport with functionaries even at the lowest level.

From the moment we took off from the helipad in Islamabad, I was conscious of my inadequacy in making a critical assessment of ERRA's performance in the context of its specific assignments and the funds that were allocated. Since I had not been a frequent visitor to the area, I could not make a comparative study of the pace at which work had progressed. It would, in any case, not be easy to contend with all the statistical aspects of the deadliest disaster in our history. We do remember that the giant earthquake had literally moved mountains and killed about 73,000 people -- a mind-boggling fact in itself. Those who were left homeless numbered more than 3.5 million. We can also recall the heartbreaking episodes of the early days when massive rescue and relief operations were conducted with the involvement of national and international agencies. And, what we should never forget is the immediate response of the ordinary citizens, particularly the urban youth, in relief operations. It was truly a moment of redemption for an otherwise uncaring society.

A phenomenon of that magnitude is bound to leave a lasting impact on the lives of those who had survived and were left to build a new future for themselves and their communities. It was this aspect that I felt greatly interested in. And as soon as we took off from Islamabad and headed first to Rawlakot, I could see that a new world was rising, almost phoenix-like, from the ruins of two years ago. This was evident from all the new structures that we could see from the top, with many under construction. The big question that crossed my mind was: Is this renewal at the material level also accompanied by some kind of a social change? In other words, can we discover, in this process of re-building the earthquake affected areas, a new paradigm for progress and development of our society?

What strikes you the most, when visiting the earthquake affected areas in Azad Kashmir and northwest areas in the Frontier province, is the amount of resources invested in physical reconstruction. We have some state-of-the-art facilities taking shape here. The new school buildings are better than what you would find in a metropolitan city. The kind of medical equipment we saw in a facility in Garhi Habibullah is also certainly on a par with the best that is available around Lahore or Karachi. But, where are the human resources to benefit from these opportunities?

When it comes to assessing the role of the army personnel in the rebuilding process, I admit to having ambivalent feelings. Respect for the army, because of its repeated interventions in the political sphere, has visibly diminished in the eyes of the civil society. But my encounter with General Nadeem -- and with Brigadier Waqar Raja in the ERRA office the next day -- was very reassuring. Perhaps, we should redefine the parameters of our national security in the light of the need for social and economic well-being of the people of this country -- and the earthquake affected areas can serve as a laboratory for this enterprise. As an aside, we may have some regrets for the massive allocations that have gone into defence for all these years, at the expense of our social development.

Another optimistic dimension of the rebuilding process is the contribution that has been made by so many civil society organisations -- the NGOs, as we know them. Incidentally, NGOs do not generally enjoy a good repute in Pakistan, mainly because the media is very deficient in covering the social sector and does not highlight the efforts of a large number of committed and dedicated groups and individuals.

In summing up my thoughts, I find it difficult to go into an analysis of why the rebuilding efforts seem more meaningful and impressive in Azad Kashmir than they do in the affected areas of the Frontier province. It obviously has a lot to do with politics and the kind of values that are being promoted in the two regions.

Finally, one is happy to see that the people who suffered the great tragedy now have access to a life better than what they were leading previously. But it is not certain that the potential this opportunity has created can be realised in the prevailing political environment.

Excited over the completion of the Sarhad Rural Development Programme-initiated water scheme, the earthquake survivors in hard-to-reach mountainous Bhogarmong Union Council are calling it the most significant thing to happen to them since the birth of the country.

Before the October-8 earthquake, some of the villages had water supply schemes constructed by district governments some 20 years ago, while a few others had water reservoirs in the shape of springs. However, the quake badly affected all sources of water in the Bakki village of Bhogarmong Union Council.

The scheme, costing Rs 10,989,150, has ensured the availability of potable water to the whole population of the union council, ranging up to 8,405.

Earlier, 1,120 families of the area would fetch water from the far-flung natural resources which was not even hygienic.

The water scheme, funded by Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, has its resource in Bahishti, an area situated at the top of the adjacent hill, some 20 kilometres from the Bhogarmong Union Council.

Giving background details regarding the initiation of the project, Bhogarmong Union Council Nazim Qari Gohar Rahman says that after the devastating earthquake of October 8 the authorities of the SRDP visited the area and told the locals that they wanted to start relief activities in the locality.

"They wanted us to identify some sectors they could work out a comprehensive strategy upon. Obviously, the provision of safe drinking water was our priority as our males and females used to fetch water from remote areas," he tells TNS.

After identifying drinking water supply as their top most priority, the SRDP formed a survey committee. In this regard, the survey committee suggested the construction of seven water storage tanks in different areas of the union council.

Gohar informs that it was an uphill task to take the 39,500-foot pipe of 2.5-inch diameter to the extremely difficult mountainous terrain, but the villagers made it possible by the sheer dint of their hard work and commitment.

"Actually, it was a decade-old problem, and every individual in the area volunteered himself for the successful completion of the project," he recalls.

Local females, he adds, even developed some mental problems due to the rigorous practice of carrying water pots on their heads from the springs in nearby mountains. Besides, they were also prone to beastly attack on their way to the water springs.

Despite heavy rains and snowfall during the last winter, the community didn't put a stop to the work and, in fact, gained momentum. The active involvement of the community not only made it possible to complete the herculean project, it also enabled them to prove that a mega scheme could be completed in far less a cost than what was estimated by the government -- Rs 80-100 millions.

An area-wise study of the project reveals that four 10,000-gallon tanks have been installed in Phulwari, Upper Bari Bak, Batli and Nandihar areas, while two 5,000-gallon tanks in Baki Nullah and Ratti, and one storage tank of 1,000-gallon in Talimar Bakki.

The maintenance of the pipeline and water storage tanks would be carried out on self-help basis, as every water-consuming family in the area is bound to pay at least Rs 10 per month for the purpose.

Likewise, another water supply scheme of the SRSP in Mera Swatiabad area of Som Elahimong Union Council has helped the 10,000 population of the quake-hit area get drinking water at their doorstep.

In this connection, a 5,000-gallon water tank is installed in the area, having its resource from spring water.

Potable water is one of the most crucial needs in the earthquake-hit Balakot and other valleys of the Mansehra district these days. As in many areas people are striving to get the facility, the inhabitants of Bhogarmong area made it possible through self-help basis and with the monetary help of the SRDP.

This effort can rightly be described as a step in the right direction because solely depending on the government would lead the masses to nothing but sheer disappointment. All the countrymen should take their cue from the people of Bhogarmong and should try to resolve their problems on self-help basis.