The Evening Post

Sep 9, 2010

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Pakistan quake victims brace for one more harsh winter

By BBC News
The government has not allowed reconstruction since it fears another quake could strike at anytime

BALAKOT The pupils and teachers of Garlat Government Primary School in Balakot are getting ready for more bad weather. Boys as young as eight help to put up large white tents, and break chunks of rubble to level the floor. They are building the temporary classrooms on the wreckage of the old ones, and it is getting too cold to hold lessons in the open.
An icy wind blows from higher ground up the valley. It snowed there a month earlier than usual, while in Balakot itself, it has rained heavily.
“We are putting up the tents ourselves because we don’t have any workers and we have no money,” deputy headmaster Mohammed Sabir explains.
Balakot, a town in the mountains of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province which was flattened by last year’s earthquake, most people are worried by the onset of winter. It threatens to be a miserable few months.
The government has not allowed reconstruction since it fears another quake could strike at anytime, so people live in tents or simple wood and metal-sheet shelters provided by relief agencies.
The site of a new town has been earmarked on a hillside some 20 km away but not all the land has been acquired yet and building work has not started.
Attia shares a tent with her uncle, aunt and cousins. It is pitched on the ruins of their old house, which buried her parents and brother.
“When there was rain we would stay inside our house and the rain would make no difference, but now we have this tent made of cloth, and every time it rains it becomes wet,” she said.
“We can’t light a fire in the tent in case it catches fire.”
An hour’s drive from Balokot towards the snow line reveals another problem brought by the bad weather.
The heavy rains have washed away mountain sides already weakened by the earthquake and years of deforestation. A 100-metre stretch of road is blocked by mud and rocks, and a single Pakistani army digger is working slowly to clear it.
This is one of nearly 40 roads in the Balakot area the authorities say have been affected, cutting off hundreds of villages. Families and livestock are moving to lower ground.
“We were not ready for the snow and now this road block is causing us lots of problems,” Mohammed Asharaf, a teacher, said.
“It has been blocked for 18 days. Why hasn’t the government been able to clear it?” Rafaqat Din Mian, who used to work as guide for foreign tourists, asks. (BBC News)