News
WB to give more funds for quake
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 : The World Bank has decided to provide additional funding to Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal-led government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) for emergency flood and earthquake recovery and mitigation programme.
According to a WB document, the Emergency Flood, Earthquake Recovery and Mitigation Programme would be added to the NWFP On-Farm Water Management and NWFP CIP II Projects. The additional funds worth $10 million are likely to be approved next month (December 2005).
The main objective of the restructured project activity and the associated component activities is to assist the NWFP in implementing a programme to restore vital economic and social infrastructure damaged by the earthquake of October 8, 2005 and flooding in summer 2005.
The activities of the restructured projects would be mainly carried out in the five earthquake-hit districts and the other eight flood-hit districts will also be covered. The rehabilitation and reconstruction will include all economic and social sectors such as health, education, agriculture, irrigation, roads, power, communications, as well as safety net measures that are targeted at households who lost properties and livelihoods.
The WB said the recent earthquake of October 8 resulted in widespread damage in the five districts (Abbotabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan and Shangla) of NWFP.
Earlier during the year, in February-March 2005, the NWFP experienced unusual heavy rains and snowfall. In Nathiagali area, the rain and snow continued for 17 and 15 days in the months of January and February 2005 respectively.
Rainfall amounted to 558mm in Dir and 614mm in Kalam during these few days. This heavy rain and snowfall caused flooding in rivers, landslides, inundation of agricultural lands, destruction of private and public buildings, loss of human and cattle lives and destruction of roads, irrigation channels, seepage drains, and telephone and electricity networks.
With the advent of summer season and rise in the temperature in the northern areas during the months of June and July 2005, large scale melting of accumulated snow on the top of mountains caused very high floods in the rivers Indus, Kabul and Swat. Again, several districts of the province suffered damage to public and private property.
Whereas damage was witnessed in all the 24 districts of the province, the Provincial Relief Commissioner declared the following districts as most affected - Chitral, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Swat, Shangla, Abottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan, Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, and D I Khan.
It is worth mentioning here those five districts affected by the heavy snowfall, rain and floods were also hit by the earthquake.
The damages caused by floods were also extensive. Human deaths in all the 24 districts of the province were 432 and the number of injured 641. Houses totally destroyed numbered 29,260 while those partially damaged were 105,600. Cattle and goats killed were 2,230 and 10,000 respectively.
Landslides caused complete or partial washing away or collapse of retaining and breast walls, bridges, culverts and causeways. A total of 588 roads were damaged in 20 districts.
The irrigation and drainage infrastructure reported as damaged consisted of 284 flood protection sites, 56 government canals and 7 civil canals. Other than roads and canals, the reported flood damages consist of government office buildings, school buildings, health buildings and water supply schemes.
The additional activities of the restructured project will be carried out under the following components: a) Restoration of Economic and Social Infrastructure - Reconstruction and/or repair of damaged roads, road embankments, pavements, culverts, bridges, retaining walls, and other ancillary works; repair and/or reconstruction of residential and non-residential public buildings including schools, health facilities and buildings; repair to damaged pipelines, pumping equipment, and other ancillary works of water supply systems; repairs of breaches in canal embankments, removal of debris deposited in canal, control structures, canal cross drainage structures and outlet structures and, water storage infrastructure.
a) Strengthening of the Safety Nets - support cash transfers and in-kind assistance to the affected communities and households.
b) Project Management and Monitoring Support - finance project management and monitoring.
The project will not have any significant or irreversible environmental impacts and is classified as environmental category “B”. Contractors and adequate monitoring and quality control will take care of short-term impacts as part of good engineering practice.
As part of the preparation of a fourth national On Farm Water Management (OFWM) project, which was designed to include institutional reform and rehabilitation/investment activities, a general review of potential environmental and social issues was conducted.
This review also benefited from a detailed sector environmental assessment (SEA) of irrigation and drainage issues in Pakistan’s Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS).
A rapid appraisal mission and consultation with key stakeholders supplemented these studies, in order to identify issues specific to the proposed NWFP-OFWM project and to propose a framework for mitigating potential negative impacts and enhancing positive ones.