Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: All shook up

Scarred by trauma, earthquake survivors in urgent need of psychological rehabilitation

Eighty thousand. That’s the number of people, by the most prudent estimates, who lost their lives in the 2005 earthquake. Years later, in 2013 in Balochistan and in 2015 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the earth trembled again. The number of casualties was far lesser in the latter ones, but the fear of earthquakes for those who survived the 2005 calamity is a weight they carry with much burden.

Seven-year-old Hira from Dir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), was at home when the October 26 earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, caused her house to wobble. She now lives in constant fear, afraid of even going out to play with other children. “My daughter wakes up in the middle of the night and starts crying, saying the earthquake will demolish our home,” says Hira’s father Attaur Rehman. He took his daughter to a hospital where instead of treating her for trauma, the doctors advised Rehman to take her to a cleric who could give her a phylactery (taweez) to cure her, he adds.

People walk past the rubble of a house damaged by the recent earthquake in the village of Aryankoat, near Dir Bala, K-P. PHOTO: REUTERS

Ziaur Rehman, a resident of Bajaur Agency, says entire villages in Salarzai tehsil have been destroyed. “The aftershocks of the earthquake can still be felt in the area, sending fear down the spines of the people residing there,” adds Rehman, talking to The Express Tribune  in the weeks following the earthquake.K-P was the worst-hit province. According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), around 232 people died and 1,415 were injured. Moreover, around 92,072 houses and 1,424 schools were damaged. According to the FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA), 31 lives were lost in the tribal belt. Bajaur Agency had the highest number of fatalities at 24, with 159 injured. At least 13 children were among those who lost their lives there.

The K-P and federal governments have jointly announced compensation packages for the victims of the earthquake. Families of the deceased will get Rs0.6 million, while those injured and whose houses have been destroyed will get Rs0.2 million each. Domestic non-governmental organisations, such as Al-Khidmat Foundation, are also providing relief to affected people in the form of amenities. However, children and women suffering from trauma have little help in the way of psychological rehabilitation. Those with demolished homes may be able to rebuild their houses with financial aid from the government and welfare organisations, but their broken hearts will be more difficult to mend.

Earthquake survivors carry relief aid from a distribution centre in the quake-hit Shangla district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. PHOTO: AFP

Medical Superintendent at District Headquarters Hospital, Khar in Bajaur, Dr Muhammad Saeed Khan says 60% of affected people show signs of psychological trauma, of which half are directly affected. These include a large number of women and children. “I received the body of a woman who died of a heart attack during the earthquake,” informs Muhammad Saeed.

The associate professor at the Accident and Emergency Unit in Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Peshawar, Dr Abdul Wahab, says he was on duty on the day of the earthquake and dealt with many victims. The hospital received more than 150 patients, of which around 20, mostly women and children, were suffering from trauma, he adds.

“I still feel fearful because of continuous aftershocks in the area,” says Waqar Ahmad, a resident of Drosh tehsil of Chitral. He adds a number of buildings have developed cracks and are no longer suitable to live in.

An injured earthquake survivor who was evacuated from Chitral by military. PHOTO: AFP

PDMA spokesperson Latifur Rehman says the provincial government has already provided compensation and relief packages in most of the affected areas, adding they are working closely with donor agencies and NGOs to provide all possible help, especially in Chitral, Shangla and Torghar.

Mushtaq Ahmad Jan, the Director of Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management at University of Peshawar, says this centre was established in 2009 and offers postgraduate, MSc, BSc, MPhil and PhD courses. The aim of the centre is to minimise casualties and mitigate damage in the event of any natural disaster. He adds the department has so far organised 45 different trainings, claiming hundreds of students have also been trained in first aid.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has divided Pakistan into four zones, says Jan. Zone-1, which includes Chitral, is the most vulnerable to earthquakes and thus from where  the highest number of casualties were reported. He laments the PDMA is only active in Peshawar, stressing the need to make it effective in other districts as well.

The Deputy Commissioner (DC) is the chairman of the PDMA at the district level, shares Jan. It is difficult for a DC, who is already bogged down with many responsibilities, to shoulder an additional duty effectively. He adds the PDMA should appoint a disaster management officer in every district who can send a report to the government stating how vulnerable each area is to a disaster.

A man walks past the rubble of a house in Mingora after it was damaged by the recent earthquake. PHOTO: REUTERS

People constructed their houses with wood in the past, but later turned to stone walls because it was cheaper to do so, says Jan. However, the stone walls pose a deadly threat in the event of an earthquake, crushing inhabitants of the building under their weight. He says education and awareness is imperative to make people realise the importance of earthquake-friendly homes.Japan, for instance, has earthquake resistant buildings, says Jan, but Pakistan has not taken any steps to follow a construction policy even after the 2005 earthquake flattened major structures, including Margalla Towers in Islamabad, killing scores of people and injuring over a hundred. “An earthquake doesn’t kill people. It is the buildings that do,” he adds.

Dr Naveed Khan has done his PhD in earthquake engineering from the US and is currently working as a senior instructor at the Earthquake Research Centre, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar. He says their centre, which was established in 2002, is equipped with state-of-the-art machines and labs. In 2005, the Higher Education Commission released Rs38.5 million for the establishment of a lab, while Rs670 million was released in 2008 for a second lab.

Though the Building Code of Pakistan does exist on paper, to which seismic provisions were added in 2007, says Naveed, there is no implementation. He, however, agreed that buildings built after the 2005 earthquake, especially schools, were not damaged in this year’s calamity because they were earthquake resistant. According to Naveed, there are many buildings in Peshawar and other older cities of the country which are more than a hundred years old. These are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes and warrant immediate attention from the government. The Earthquake Research Centre at University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore is researching on building materials and will provide feedback to the government, he adds.



Director  of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency, Dr Bashir Khan, maintains the intensity of earthquakes is increasing with time. He claims the spike in population and the accompanying pressure on the environment due to deforestation and earth moving could be one of the reasons for this. He adds landslides could decrease considerably if deforestation is curbed, making Pakistan less prone to catastrophes triggered by climate change.

Chairperson of the Psychology Department at the University of Peshawar says people from affected areas such as Shangla, Swat, Dir and Buner, especially women, children and the elderly, have shown clear signs of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She adds aftershocks still persist following the earthquake, which is why the government and other donors must take steps to ensure people do not live in constant fear.

Director of the National Weather Forecasting Centre, Islamabad, Dr Muhammad Hanif, agrees. He says over 120 aftershocks have been reported since the October 26 earthquake, adding the onset of winter has compounded the miseries of those affected, with some left to brave snow and rain under the open sky, particularly in Malakand, Chitral and Hazara.

So, while efforts have been made, much more needs to be done. When the earth shook, it shook with it many lives. And several like Hira now dwell in constant fear, waiting for another earthquake to crumble what’s left.

Wisal Yousafzai is a Peshawar-based journalist. He tweets @WisalYousafzai

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 29^th, 2015.