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AS I SEE IT

The spirit of the nation

IKRAM SEHGAL writes from Karachi
***One can only hope that the government will pay heed to practical solutions bringing long-term relief to earthquake affectees and rehabilitate them effectively so that in a way that they do not continue to live on the dole for all time to come, refugees in their own country.***
MANY people are comparing the spirit of 2005 to 1965! They are right, forty years later almost to the day, the whole nation has again united as one. The odd voice raised in protest is in fact an oddity! Every setback provides an opportunity. Visited with a disaster of unimaginable magnitude, and coping with it with the combined will of the nation as one entity in bringing succour and relief to the survivors, alongwith burying the tens of thousands dead the country has now set in motion plans for the future for the living.
The first priority is to keep relief and rehabilitation apart, there is a tendency to mix the two to the detriment of both. The debris requires to be cleared, the dead are still to be extracted and buried, delivery of tents, blankets must continue apace. Almost 30-35 percent of this effort has to be managed in almost inaccessible areas. Rehabilitation must follow swiftly but in a planned manner. The President has announced the formation of a Rehabilitation Authority. The towns and villages in the affected areas have been mostly destroyed, very few partially damaged structures remain. More important, the basic civic infra-structure, local government administration, water and sewerage lines as well as telephone and electricity lines, are almost nonexistent.
The easy way out for administrators and relief agencies is to hand out money to individuals and local governments for re-construction. This may be the human thing to do, it would be also the wrong thing to do, like throwing money down a well. In a logistical nightmare, relief supplies are stacking up in some areas and not reaching remote, inaccessible mountain villages. Money would never be enough, and in the circumstances could never re-create the original to the own-ers/inhabitants and/or give them a reasonable means to a livelihood.
Take stock of the challenge, nearly 2.5 million people have been affected, over 80 percent live in rural mountainous areas. In consultation with renowned foreign and local town planners and architects, the authority must evolve a master plan for the affected area. This must include total re-construction of towns/cities on a fresh design. It should be codified by law that the buildings must be earthquake-proof (with hollow blocks), as was done for Quetta after the 1935 earthquake. Expertise can be obtained from earthquake-prone areas such as Japan, Turkey, etc.
The destroyed towns and cities were laid out haphazardly without any real town planning, in most villages (and many towns) the basic conveniences of running water, sewerage, electricity and telephone communication, etc never existed in the first place, and if they were they have been destroyed. The entire infra-structure network has to be laid afresh. Everyone generally knows who owns what and the size of property thereof, in many cases records will be available. Temporarily all property must be resumed by the State, then re-distributed to the affected on sizes equal (or bigger) than what they previously owned, wherever possible more or less on the some locations. The State will thus avoid accusations of property being taken away without adequate compensation.
Sustainability of life requires that there has to be an immediate and long term means for income for the survivors. Our mountains are no less beautiful than Switzerland, or the Alps in Italy, France, Austria and Spain. The major means of income for such areas is from tourists who need modern apartments with facilities to stay in. Rental income for the locals is increased manifold by tourists spending in restaurants, shopping at stores, etc. Two-storey houses must be made with at least two, three or four bedroom apartments. Each family should be given legal possession of this two storey structure, which should have a reinforced basement. The family could live in one of the apartments and rent out the others apartment/s on long and short term hire. Instead of creating one new Murree project, create a 100 (and even more) new Murrees. Of course the housing projects should include shopping malls built on modern design. Families who
owned shops should be given ownership of shops, either to start their own business or to rent out, a long term means of revenue generation.
The master plan must have modern schools, colleges, community halls, medical clinics, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, law courts, etc. The schools and colleges should be with hostels and given on lease to the major school/college chains in the country to run, the rich may pay a reasonable amount but the poor will be on a grant, whether they are residents or nonresidents. For long term medical relief the hospitals planned should be large and well equipped, there should even be specialist and teaching hospitals, e.g. orthopedic, pulmonary care, psychiatric care, etc. Built to futuristic standards, living accommodation could house foreign volunteers to come and work for long periods.
Each town, each village site must be selected with consensus of local inhabitants. Buildings for local government machinery including administration, law courts and police station must be built to modern standards, with wide roads, recreational parks, playgrounds, etc. In the meantime, for some time people need to be housed, the government has already initiated setting up tented villages both in the mountains and in the plains. More than three million live in one giant tented city on the plains of Arafat during Haj, it has already been suggested that the Saudi expertise should come in handy. Each tented village can have population of about 10000-15000 each, with community centres. These must be given adequate security.
Where will the money for such “grandiose” schemes come from? Let us distribute tents, blankets, food and medicine flowing in but save the money donated for rehabilitation. Once the master plan is ready, countries and NGOs can be approached to adopt towns (even part of) and villages for re-construction. There are some individual philanthropists, NGOs and other organisations that have advertised that they will build earthquakeproof houses, etc, this generosity needs to be channelised. Our Arab brethren as well as own business community can contribute directly with money or build directly as per the Master Plan, blocks can be named after the donors.
Relief will be an ongoing process for some time, rehabilitation has to be undertaken over years. This is the time to tap into the world's generosity and take irrevocable financial commitments for the projects. As cement and steel manufacturing goes up to meet housing starts, as roads and bridges are widened or newly laid to cater for increased traffic flow, skilled and unskilled labour will be required, etc the economy will be resuscitated. A rough master plan must be ready in a fortnight or so, with detailed designs being ready in the next 60-days, and pre-positioning of material to start in the next 120-150 days.
My article “Coping with disaster” was neither prophetic nor was I being clairvoyant, it just took stock of what could happen and what was required. One can only hope that the government will pay heed to practical solutions bringing long-term relief to earthquake affectees and rehabilitate them effectively so that in a way that they do not continue to live on the dole for all time to come, refugees in their own country.
Ikram Sehgal, a former Major of Pakistan Army, is a political analyst and columnist.