Pakistan

Background

The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that shattered Pakistan on October 8, 2005, caused the most damage in the in the city of Muzaffarabad and its vicinity since it was about 19 kilometers southwest of the earthquake’s epicenter. Two uncovered fault lines pass through Muzaffarabad where the Eurasian and Indian Tectonic plates meet. Likewise, Mansehra District in KPK shares a border with AJK and is also located on the Main Boundary Thrust Fault which caused the 2005 earthquake. There are human settlements and infra-structure on the fault lines which is alarming hazard.

In continuation of UNDP Pakistan’s support to development of policy and institutional frameworks for effective disaster risk management, a project titled Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction and Preparedness in Mansehra, Muzaffarabad, Quetta, Murree and Chitral Municipalities which fall in the earthquake zone of Pakistan was initiated. This project aims to contribute to the process of integrating disaster risk reduction into recovery and development programming for safer communities in the selected municipalities.

Objective

To build institutions, structures, policies and enhance capacities for disaster risk management for communities and societies.

Project components

Institutional arrangements for establishing Municipal Disaster Management Cells
Develop municipal disaster management policies
Conduct earthquake risk assessment in two districts
Develop scenarios and action plans through multi-stakeholder processes

Key Achievements

A total of 14240 buildings in Muzaffarabad, about 11047 buildings in Mansehra,3000 buildings in Quetta, 2500 in Chitral and about 1500 in Murree city have been surveyed for Earthquake Risk Assessment (ERA).

64 Govt officials and civil society representatives have been trained in DRR against the targeted 50 in Mansehra and Muzaffarabad.
90 Engineers have been trained on retrofitting and EQ safer reconstruction techniques.
Similarly, 84 masons have been sensitized about the EQ safe construction techniques against the combined target of 100 (Engineers + Masons).
User friendly construction guidelines for the masons and self builders have been developed in addition to the Retrofitting and Dhajji guidelines in collaboration with the EQ Engineering Centre of UET Peshawar.

Guidelines for the functioning of Municipal Disaster Management Cells have been developed and municipal staff of Muzaffarabad and Mansehra has been trained for their use.
Rapid Emergency Response Training in Muzaffarabad and Professional Medical First Response Training in Mansehra has been organized for USAR team. Moreover these trainings have been supplemented by the provision of much needed equipment
School safety events in 10 schools each in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra have been conducted, participants and the trainers manual also developed.
The Scenario building and Action Planning and Earthquake simulation exercises have been completed for the cities of Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Quetta.