ADB Hails Progress in Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Two Years after Pakistan Earthquake
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A construction boom is underway in earthquake-hit areas of northern Pakistan as the second anniversary of the 2005 disaster approaches, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). “On a recent helicopter tour of earthquake-affected areas with the ambassadors of our key co-financing partners, we observed impressive progress in rebuilding homes and infrastructure,” said Peter Fedon, ADB’s Country Director for Pakistan. “The Government of Pakistan’s housing assistance program is an emerging success story. Around 90 percent of rural homes have been rebuilt, or are under construction or reconstruction through government grants. The coming winter should be the last that the remaining people left homeless by the earthquake will spend in temporary shelter,” he said. The ADB has committed $820 million in loans and grants to the Government of Pakistan to assist in post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation of the transport, power, education, health, governance, and housing sectors. The commitment includes a $400 million loan in June to help complete the rebuilding of homes. The earthquake destroyed or damaged around 585,000 rural homes and some 40,000 urban homes. Australia, Belgium, the European Union, Finland, and Norway are key co-financing partners in ADB’s Earthquake Emergency Assistance Program. Some 6,000 households, comprising around 30,000 people who lost their land in the earthquake, are about to receive compensation payments from the government to help them buy new land. Power supply has been restored in all areas after ADB financed the rehabilitation of all 10 grid stations and five of nine hydroelectric plants damaged during the earthquake. “Some areas, like Kathai near the Line of Control in Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK), now have better power than they had before the earthquake,” said Mr. Fedon. The ADB has introduced a new seismic-resistant building model in the earthquake-affected areas for its school rebuilding program. It is funding the reconstruction of around 450 primary, middle and high schools using a pre-engineered light steel frame structure, with fibre-cement boards for wall-cladding. The ADB is also financing the rehabilitation of major inter-district and key arterial roads including bridges, abutments and retaining walls. Rehabilitation work on about 300 kilometres of rural roads which began in the first quarter of 2007 is nearing completion. “The desire for rapid reconstruction must be tempered with caution and scrutiny in planning so that we can truly build back better and in a sustainable manner,” said Mr. Fedon. The powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake caused devastation in nine districts across a mountainous region equal to the size of Belgium on October 8, 2005. Around 73,000 people were killed and 70,000 people were severely injured or disabled. Three million people were left homeless in the immediate aftermath. About ADB | 
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