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The Pakistan Earthquake - Two Years On
8 October 2007
At 9am on Saturday 8 October 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale left more than 70,000 people dead and made 2.5 million people homeless. The second anniversary of the largest natural disaster in Pakistan’s short history is an opportunity to look back at the role DFID played in saving lives in the immediate aftermath and the work we are still supporting.
Humanitarian response
The UK’s response to the immediate humanitarian situation was enormous. DFID
provided £56 million, so survivors could have winterised tents, clean water, medicines
are other basic items in the days and weeks ahead. With DFID support Rapid UK
was able to fly out a team of 84 rescuers and four sniffer dogs to the worst hit
areas. Out of a total of 24 people pulled out alive, 13 were rescued by Rapid
UK. In addition to the Government’s response, it has been estimated that the UK
public contributed around £70 million to the relief effort, including roughly
£41 million collected by the
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) group of NGOs.
Reconstruction and rehabilitation
DFID Pakistan has committed a further £70m to help with the long term
rebuilding of the affected areas. Our focus from an early stage has been to work
closely with the Government of Pakistan and major partners to help put in place
a framework and institutions for meeting the huge challenge of reconstruction
and rehabilitation.
From the £70m available, we are providing up to £14m to help improve the Government of Pakistan’s ability to manage the reconstruction effort. This includes support to restore government facilities, deploying essential staff to earthquake affected areas, providing support for the World Health Organisation’s new disease early warning system, and helping the NGO Merlin provide health care services to those made homeless and living in transitional camps.
The most innovative aspect of our approach has been to allocate up to £35m to the Pakistan Government’s Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), which has overall responsibility for the reconstruction effort. Our funds can be used by ERRA for its own priorities, including rebuilding health centres, schools and other key public facilities. Recent field trips to the affected areas have all confirmed that ERRA funded construction and reconstruction work is well underway and good progress is being made. Using Sector Budget Support to support a reconstruction programme following a major disaster is a first for DFID and we will continue to monitor its progress closely.
Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed, Deputy Chairman of ERRA, has paid tribute to the work of
DFID. In a recent film on DFID’s work in Pakistan he noted that:
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"DFID’s contribution soon after the earthquake was I think exceptional by any
standard. I think the biggest contribution that I see is DFID’s assistance in
helping us to evolve as an organisation which is responsive to the need of the
earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation, and I think that was a phenomenal
contribution.”
A decision will be made in early 2008 on how the remaining £21 million will be
spent.