 Islamabad,
July 21, 2006: Basul is a collection
of 5 hamlets 1,500 feet up a precarious footpath
from the bottom of the beautiful Siran valley.
Basul was hit hard by the earthquake – almost
all buildings were damaged or destroyed and 3
villagers lost their lives – but the people
of Basul now live in earthquake-resistant temporary
homes and are optimistic about the future thanks
to their own hard work and the assistance of the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
Now, from a distance, one sees Basul as collections
of blue and silver spots on green terraces, with
forests in the heights above. The blue spots are
plastic sheets that insulate and protect the outside
walls of one- and two-room transitional houses.
The silver spots are reflective light-weight corrugated
iron roofs.
In one such home, Abdullah Sardar sits amid the
decorations from his third son’s recent
marriage. He describes the much larger sod-roofed
 house
he lived in before the quake. The heavy roof provided
excellent insulation but, like so many others,
caved in during the earthquake.
CRS provided 19,914 families like Abdullah’s
with corrugated iron roofing sheets, heavy plastic
tarps and foam insulation to make the construction
of transitional homes affordable. Like all families
in Basul, Abdullah and his family built their
temporary homes mostly with their own labor –
including hauling the materials up the steep path
from the valley – and the assistance of
a carpenter trained by CRS in earthquake-resistant
building techniques. Additional funds were provided
by the Pakistani government, in the form of the
first 25,000 rupee tranche of earthquake reconstruction
money.
All 87 households in Basul built transitional
shelters between November and March that are each
meant to last 2 to 3 years. Homes were “customized”
by salvaging the ornately carved, brightly colored
doors and windows from damaged and destroyed sod
homes.
Abdullah is not worried about the coming winter,
but he wants to build a larger house with more
rooms. Like his neighbors, Abdullah now understands
many of the principles of earthquake-resistant
building.
The Pakistani NGO SRSP has recently conducted
a survey of Basul for the government Earthquake
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA),
and Abdullah expects to receive a second compensation
check, this time for 75,000 rupees ($1,300) which
will be accompanied by guidelines for the construction
of an affordable earthquake resistant home.
The United States, through USAID, is providing
more than $1.5 billion in development assistance
to Pakistan over the next five years to improve
education, health, governance and economic growth.
In addition, the United States has pledged a total
of $510 million in earthquake relief and reconstruction
efforts to assist the people of Pakistan and to
support Pakistani government relief and reconstruction
efforts.
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