ADB hails progress in reconstruction two years after earthquake
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—The government of Pakistan's housing assistanceprogram is an emerging success story and around 90 percent of rural homes have been rebuilt or are under construction or reconstruction through government grants.
A construction boom is underway in earthquake-hit areas of northern Pakistan as the second anniversary of the 2005 disaster approaches. The coming winter should be the last that the remaining people left homeless by the earthquake will spend in temporary shelter.
This was stated by ADB's Country Director for Pakistan Peter Fedon hereon Wednesday. He said "On a recent helicopter tour of earthquake-affectedareas with the ambassadors of our key co-financing partners, we observedimpressive progress in rebuilding homes and infrastructure,"
The ADB has committed $820 million in loans and grants to the Government of Pakistan to assist in post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation of the transport, power, education, health, governance, and housing sectors.
The commitment includes a $400 million loan in June to help complete the rebuilding of homes. The earthquake destroyed or damaged around 585,000 rural homes and some 40,000 urban homes. Australia, Belgium, the European Union, Finland, and Norway are key co-financing partners in ADB's Earthquake Emergency Assistance Program.
Some 6,000 households, comprising around 30,000 people who lost their land in the earthquake, are about to receive compensation payments from the government to help them buy new land.
Power supply has been restored in all areas after ADB financed the rehabilitation of all 10 grid stations and five of nine hydroelectric plants damaged during the earthquake.
"Some areas, like Kathal near the Line of Control in Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK), now have better power than they had before the earthquake," said Mr. Fedon.
The ADB has introduced a new seismic-resistant building model in the earthquake-affected areas for its school rebuilding program. It is funding the reconstruction of around 450 primary, middle and high schools using a pre-engineered light steel frame structure, with fibre-cement boards for wall-cladding.
The ADB is also financing the rehabilitation of major inter-district and key arterial roads including bridges, abutments and retaining walks. Rehabilitation work on about 300 kilometres of rural roads which began in the first quarter of 2007 is nearing completion.
"The desire for rapid reconstruction must be tempered with caution andscrutiny in planning so that we can truly build back better and in asustainable manner," said Mr. Fedon.
The powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake caused devastation in ninedistricts across a mountainous region equal to the size of Belgium on October 8, 2005. Around 73,000 people were killed and 70,000 people were severely injured or disabled. Three million people were left homeless in the immediate aftermath.
ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through pro-poor sustainable economy growth, socialdevelopment, and good governance. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67members- 48 from the region. In 2006, it approved loans and grants forprojects totaling $8.5 billion, and technical assistance amounting to almost $ 242 million