16,000 volunteers to build Quake-proof houses in Pakistan
'Pakistan Times' National News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund will train over 16,000 volunteers from 34 earthquake-affected union councils of NWFP and Azad Kashmir for the construction of seismic-resistant houses.

Speaking at a discussion titled Reconstruction and Rehabilitation: A Task ahead, organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Kamran Akbar PPAF team leader for reconstruction and rehabilitation said that though life in the quake-hit areas could not be restored to the status it was before October 8, 2005, efforts were underway to rehabilitate the affected people.

Akbar said the PPAF had divided its efforts into three phases social mobilisation, reconstruction of infrastructure and the construction of houses, mainly in quake-hit rural areas, The Peninsula reported.

The main focus was on the rural areas so that the people there could be provided with houses before the start of winter.

He said the government had released Rs 40bn for the quake-affected people as compensation for the reconstruction of their houses.

He also appreciated the government's plan to transfer the compensation amount directly to the accounts of the affected people rather than pipelining it through a relief agency.

Akbar said the other major problem that they were facing in the affected areas was of landslides and rapid deforestation, which was a serious threat to their environment.●