Reconstruction of Earthquake-Affected Areas in Pakistan
Author:
Mr Amod Mani Dixit
In partnership with UNDP-Pakistan, the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) responded to the Pakistan earthquake of October 2005 by providing technical assistance to the early recovery program of the Government of Pakistan. It demonstrated a people-centered, cost-effective, and environment-friendly rubble removal and an emergency housing strategy that would facilitate the incorporation of resistance to earthquakes in transitional and permanent reconstruction of buildings. The strategy would ensure sustainable livelihoods and habitats for the earthquake-affected communities. An indicative output of the program was capacity building, entailing support to the affected rural communities for the construction of emergency shelter and the reconstruction of earthquake resilient housing units. This included:
- Training Programs for engineers, architects, and sub-engineers including Training of Trainers
- Training Programs for masons, petty contractors, self-builders, and home-owners
- Earthquake-Awareness for officials
- Shake-Table Demonstrations
- Construction of model earthquake-resistant buildings
- Conduction of Mobile Earthquake Clinics
This four-month long program resulted in the training of a total of 1,500 persons from the earthquake-affected areas including about 400 civil engineers/architects and 500 masons. With financial assistance from the US Office of Foreign Assistance (OFDA), NSET has been providing technical support to Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) of Pakistan, in program coordination with UN-HABITAT since February 2006. This includes the provision of policy support for developing capacity building strategies for earthquake-resistant reconstruction; review and updating of the existing guidelines on earthquake-resistant housing reconstruction; the development or adaptation of training curricula and training material; assistance in the development of strategies of training and compliance; implementation of a training program for Trainers and Master Trainers in the 11 Housing Reconstruction Centers spread in two earthquake-affected provinces; and the provision of assistance in the development of an operation manual for urban housing reconstruction, supporting the implementation of a public awareness campaign. The technical assistance by NSET is scheduled to continue until February 2007.
The above-mentioned regional knowledge-sharing programs were accepted and profusely appreciated by the local participants, from people working at the grassroots level to the policy makers, decision-makers and academicians at the top, as reflected by:
- The wide participation during the construction of model houses or the shake-table demo-houses, for observing the construction technologies, The large participation during the demo programs/main programs; active and live discussions during the programs with genuine, down-to-the-earth questions, related to the practical aspects of the technologies, raised by the participants, Heartiest acknowledgements expressed after the completion of the program, The positive and encouraging coverage of the programs in the media, with an immense amount of appreciation Appreciation letters awarded to NSET
- Further requests from institutions to organize similar programs; an unusually large number of requests is being received by NSET
The warm welcome to NSET professionals, by the local people, to their homes when they visit the towns and villages.
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