Caritas helps Pakistani Kashmir quake victims return home
New Delhi (AsiaNews/ICNS) As a spring thaw warms quake-affected regions of Pakistan, Caritas is monitoring the trek back to their "places of origin" of the thousands of people left homeless in last October's devastating 7.6 earthquake, the worst in about 100 years.
Voluntary agencies say a second wave of deaths due to the Himalayan winter was avoided in the weeks and months that followed the earthquake, which killed over 70,000 people in northern Pakistan and left some 3.5 million people homeless.
According to Mario Ragazzi, donor liaison for the Italian chapter of Caritas in Pakistan, the immediate focus is on assuring the safe return of some 300,000 people to their homes from temporary shelters, where they spent the winter months.
The homes of another 3 million people will have to be checked for safety as several such building may have suffered damages from the earthquake.
"It is chaotic. We are most concerned with the people's safe return at this moment. We are positioned at the points of departure and the points of arrival, to make sure that people get to their former homes," Ragazzi said.
The Pakistani government has put in place a strict rebuilding policy meant to curb any possible overlap of reconstruction efforts and to ensure that people who have lost their homes receive the same quality of service, Caritas Internationalis said in a press release.
Basically, Ragazzi said, the idea is to avoid the possibility that one international NGO would build houses that are better than others, leading to feelings among victims that they are not being treated equally.
Pakistani government policy also demands that the reconstruction of houses be done by the local population only. In other words, Caritas Pakistan and its international partners will be training local people to rebuild earthquake-resistant houses, but they cannot actually help to build the houses themselves.
The Caritas network plans to provide training to some 5,000 families in the areas around Muzafarabad and Mansehra to rebuild homes.
The government has made it clear it does not want to have displaced people languishing in temporary shelters for long. The state has just initiated a phase of voluntary return and, in some cases, people are being provided with "return kits" to encourage their returning home.
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22/04/2016 18:05
