10 Years of Earthquake-II

While on the one hand, the government agencies engaged in reconstruction/rehabilitation process are struggling to pull district Bagh of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, out of the abyss of death and destruction it plunged into after the October 8, 2005 earthquake, the people of Bagh appear not be much pleased with the pace of work aimed at bringing their lives back to normal.
There is a tangible sense of deprivation among the general public and they openly complain about political intervention and nepotism that has badly affected the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation in AJK.
“It is 10 years to the horrifying day and we are still looking for the life to become normal once again. In the beginning, the pace of work on these reconstruction and rehabilitation projects was very fast. But then there was political intervention and the funds allocated for rehabilitation of people and reconstruction and advancement of infrastructure were diverted to other projects,” a businessman running a grocery store in the main bazaar in Bagh said.
This, he said, was done to gain political objectives. “On one side, this move brought the reconstruction/rehabilitation process to almost a complete halt and on the other it created bad blood among the people of Bagh on the basis of political and clan (bradari) affiliations,” he said.
A young man accompanying his wife to the hospital complained that there were hardly any appropriate health facilities available in the hospital. “We were fortunate that the doctor was available for the check up of my wife who is pregnant. But what she has done is that she has told us to get certain tests done from the private laboratory and has prescribed these medicines that I have to purchase from the medical store from my own pocket because these are not available in the hospital pharmacy,” he said.
He said that soon after the earthquake, the international relief agencies, NGOs and other donor agencies established some excellent health facilities in Bagh and in the surrounding towns and villages.
“Those were equipped with best machinery and the doctors and paramedical staff working there was highly competent and professional. They were kind and helpful. They used to carry out all the tests in those make-shift hospitals and even provided us with all the medicines. In those days these hospitals and clinics were immaculately maintained and used to be very neat and clean.
“But then they left and handed those facilities over to local administration. And now you go to that hospital (pointed at a building) and you will not be able to breathe because it has become dirty and smells so bad,” he said.
He said that most of the people are taking their wives (expecting mothers) to Islamabad or Rawalpindi for delivery because not enough facilities are available here.
“This is the situation here in Bagh, the district headquarters. You can imagine what will be the conditions in the small towns and villages dotting these hills where transportation is not available and people have to walk for miles to reach a road from where they can board some bus or van to reach their destinations,” he said.
The officials in the ‘Bagh Reconstruction Unit’ claimed that 46 health facilities have been reconstructed including the District Headquarters Hospital, Tehsil headquarter Hospital, the Basic Health Units (BHUs) and the Rural Health Centers. They said that work on another two projects is in various stages of completion. However, they mentioned that there were 17 projects on which the work is yet to start.
“We have completed these 46 health projects and most of these are operational already. However, you may find some of these facilities still unoccupied because the required staff, like doctors, paramedical staff, technicians and administrative staff is not available for those places,” the official told ‘The News’ on obvious condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He also said that there were chances that some of the on-going projects, on which work has stopped because of non-availability of funds, may get damaged or destroyed again and the money already spent on these projects may also go waste.
Similarly, those completed projects, which are still not occupied and lying empty may also need some moderate to major repairs once the staff may be recruited or transferred from other places to make these centers operational.
"It would be a complex situation at the time. Now the buildings are ready but the staff is not available to occupy those. But if immediate steps were not taken it would not be long that the staff would be there but these buildings would not be fit enough for them to occupy and start work unless another hefty amount of money is spent on their repairs and rehabilitation," the official in the District Reconstruction Unit said.