Flimsy shelter

The earthquake that rocked many parts of the country on January 19 mercifully inflicted little damage. But while people in the town of Dalbandin, like others close to the epicentre of the tremor, are obviously relieved they have been spared any loss of life, they are compelled at present to spend freezing winter nights protected only by canvas tents. Around 250 houses are reported to have collapsed in Dalbandin and the nearby settlement of Nokkundi. Almost all of them were mud structures, least able to withstand the jolts of a quake that measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.

Millions of people across the country live in housing that is just as unsafe. Estimates suggest that up to 70 per cent of people live in homes that offer inadequate shelter — these houses have usually been constructed using poor quality materials. It is not only quakes that leave them vulnerable. The worst brunt of the floods which swept across the country from July to September last year was borne by just such shelters. Even when there are no floods, death as a result of the collapse of dilapidated roofs, most often after rains, is a regular event taking .

Pakistan has since the 1950s spent a smaller and smaller percentage of its budget on providing housing to its people. This is one reason why the number of people living on the streets in all major cities has continued to increase quite dramatically from one year to the next. It is also true that in a country prone to natural disaster of various kinds, shelter is an essential need. The failure to address it means people everywhere remain at acute risk. This time, the people of Dalbandin and surrounding areas were fortunate. It would be unwise to leave them in the hands of fate by failing to prioritise the need to offer safe housing to people everywhere in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2011.