There is no substitute for life and no financial assistance, no matter how great it is, can bring back a dear departed soul. Since the devastating Kashmir earthquake of 2005, with the national and international monetary help pouring in and somehow reaching those affected with it, there has been a sense of commitment and devotion aimed at the prosperity of Azad Jammu and Kashmir region.
On 8October 2005, the residents of AJK were badly shaken by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that killed around 47,321 people, injured more than 33 thousands and displaced over 1.8 million people. The natural calamity wreaked havoc on an area of 7,000 sq km leaving infrastructure, communication network, roads and farmlands in ruins. At least 334 health facilities were destroyed in the quake. Aided by the timely response of the Pakistanis and international community, now Kashmiris have far better infrastructure than what they had before the earthquake.
However, a lot of construction work is still needed to be done in the education and health sectors, as since the earthquake, only 33 percent reconstruction work has been done so far in the education sector. As a result, around 0.3 million children are attending schools, which are without any roof or building. During a visit to the earthquake affected areas along with a small group of journalists, this scribe observed that more than 50 percent of reconstruction work has been completed so far. With the financial assistance from the Government of Pakistan, Asian Development Bank, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Kuwait, and Turkey and other countries, AJK government has completed a lot of reconstruction work.
However, now the AJK government is facing acute shortage of funds to complete the remaining reconstruction projects. Talking to Pakistan Today, Dr Asif Hussain, the secretary of the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (SEERA) of AJK, said that out of total 8,023 reconstruction projects, 4,370 projects have been completed.
However, he said that now SEERA is facing shortage of funds to execute remaining projects. SEERA is mandated to undertake the gigantic task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the earthquake affected areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the education and health sectors are the most affected. “Of total, 2,792 reconstruction projects in education sector, so far we completed only 945, while the situation of health sector is also not satisfactory since out of 159 projects, we could only manage to complete 95 projects,” he said.
Pakistan Today also learnt that in the environment sector too, the shortage of fund is creating difficulties for the government there. Of total 128 reconstruction projects, only 15 projects could be completed so far in that sector. In transport sector, the government could complete 72 projects out of the total 81 projects. In agriculture and livestock sector, only 631 projects out of 1,435 could be completed so far. In telecommunication and power sectors, however, almost all the reconstruction projects have been completed. They included 44 projects in telecommunication sector and 55 in power sector. At least five AJK districts including Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Poonch, Sudhnoti, and Neelum were the worst hit in the quake.
The government has, however, now built which are quake-resistant. For the reconstruction work in the quake-affected areas of AJK and Pakistan, Asian Development Bank (ADB) played a leading role. It pledged and provided US $1 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation in loan and grants in power, health, education, transport, housing and social protection sectors in AJK and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ADB assisted in the reconstruction of more than 300,000 houses, 309 schools, 3 major hospitals, 26 basic and rural health centres, 9 hydro-power stations, 10 grid stations and numerous other buildings and official residences. In addition, it also contributed a major share to the construction of around 800 km roads in rural areas and 48 bridges. During the visit, it was observed that due to better reconstruction works, the economic activities have revived there and now the affected can now look forward to a better future. But they still need attention of donors for the completion of remaining projects.
