The construction firm which rebuilt schools in an earthquake-affected district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as part of a USAID project won an international award on Wednesday in recognition of its work on the project.
CDM-Smith, a US-based engineering and construction firm, was presented the Design-Build Award by the Design-Build Institute of America in a ceremony held in New Orleans, USA.
The award went to four schools CDM designed and rebuilt in AJK’s Bagh district under USAID’s Pakistan Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Programme (PERRP).
PERRP was initiated in 2006 to plan, design and build 77 earthquake-resistant buildings in AJK’s Bagh and Mansehra districts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to replace schools and health facilities destroyed during the 2005 earthquake.
The 77 buildings include 61 schools, 15 basic health units and one hospital. Out of the total buildings, 51 have already been completed and the rest are expected to finish by June 2013.
The four schools which won CDM the award are Government Boys High School village Dharray, Government Girls High School 2 village Chattar, Government Girls Intermediate College village Rerrah and Boys Higher Secondary School village Rerrah.
The reconstructed buildings will provide education to around 17,000 children and health services to around 300,000 people, said CDM Vice-President Tarik Selim.
Selim, who was in-charge of PERRP, said because of the massive destruction caused by the earthquake, CDM even had to rebuild roads leading up to the building sites in some areas. CDM developed seismic resistant structural designs that suit mountainous regions, he said.
“To address the lack of data needed for seismic design, we micro-zoned the area and mapped fault lines using geographic information system technology,” he said.
He said CDM also employed a robust social mobilization and community engagement process for the project.
“One of the criteria of selecting a school for reconstruction was the commitment of the local community for the planning and, later on, management of the reconstructed schools,” Selim said.
For this purpose, CDM formed School Management Committees (SMC) to help with the planning, design and implementation of the schools.
Jane Thomas, community liaison specialist for PERRP who worked closely with the SMCs, said she was thrilled at how well the communities responded.
“The SMCs became very active in the reconstruction process,” Jane Thomas, community liaison specialist for PERRP, said. “We gave them a long list of issues we needed help with, such as land, water and electricity issues, and as a result of the extra effective community participation, we didn’t have a single court case during the reconstruction phase.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.
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