Technical guidance must be provided along with funds: UN-Habitat

Floods exposed most vulnerable communities, provide opportunity to rebuild better.

ISLAMABAD: Floods have exposed the country’s most vulnerable communities, neglected otherwise by the development sector, and provide an opportunity to rebuild better, according to Siamak Moghaddam, country programme manager United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat.

“There is poverty in Pakistan but there are communities which are way below the poverty line and floods have brought them forward,” said Moghaddam in an interview with The Express Tribune.

According to government estimates, floods have destroyed or damaged more than 1.7 million houses across the country. Financially speaking, the housing sector is one of the hardest hit and the most expensive in terms of reconstruction, therefore, “this has to be done accurately and in a timely manner,” said Moghaddam. “People have to augment [the government’s assistance] with their own resources and find solutions that could be accommodated within this,” he said.

He also stressed the need for localised solutions which take stakeholders on board. “People in northern parts of the country require shelters that protect them from both floods and earthquakes, while those in the south need protection only from floods.” While the government plans to provide Rs100,000 to each flood-affected household for reconstruction, Moghaddam feels it has to provide them with technical expertise as well. “A little more investment in reconstruction strategy or the action plan would make the results satisfying and long term.”

He compared the government’s response to two similar tragedies: the earthquake in Azad Kashmir in 2005 and the one in Balochistan in 2008. UN-Habitat’s findings indicate that two years after the earthquake in Azad Kashmir, where the government had a proactive and inclusive reconstruction strategy, 42 per cent of the 463,000 severely damaged houses were successfully reconstructed of which 95 per cent were rebuilt according to seismic standards.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2010.