PESHAWAR: The water is gone but so are the houses. This is no time to sit around waiting for someone to come and help with reconstruction activities.
A visit to Nowshera and Charsadda will reveal people hauling stones, bricks, cement, sand - just about anything they can use or find - to rebuild their homes. While some have finished making their houses, many others, including farmers, labourers and salaried persons, are still struggling to finish work on their houses.
An informal survey by APP revealed that most people felt they did not have enough money to buy construction materials. Many urged the government to release the second instalment of Watan Cards.
Dilarum Khan, who is a barber in Dheri Ishaq Village, Nowshera District, said, “A poor man like me cannot afford to make even a room for my family of five. Go take a look at the prices [of the construction material]. How am I supposed to afford all that?”
The price of 3,000 bricks before the floods was Rs9,000, he said. The same can now be had for Rs16,000. But the bricks are not the only raw material that has registered a price hike. Stones, cement, wood have seen a similar increase in prices. Even carpenters and labourers charge more now, Khan added.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2011.
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