Pakistan
8th October Earthquake
Country Overview
 Population:
162.42 million
 Literacy Rate:
48.7% (% age 15 and
over that can read and
write)
 Affected Area
Population:
5.7million
(7 persons/HH)
Source: Geological Survey Pakistan
Earthquake Statistics

Dead: 73,000 persons?
This includes over 18,000 children
 Injured: 70,000 persons?
 Overall affected: 3.2- 3.5 million persons
 Without Shelter: 2.8 million persons (approx.)
 Without adequate food: 2.3 million persons
 Employment loss: 325,000 persons (30%)
 Housing : 400153 shelter units destroyed or seriously damaged.
2.8 million persons without shelter
 Education : 4844 destroyed
2647 damaged
 Health :
455 destroyed
119 damaged
 Roads
: 4429 km damaged (37%)
Source: Government of Pakistan - as of Nov 3, 2005
The National Citizens Response
 Nation united in response to the natural
disaster.
 All segments of the society donated in cash
and kind.
 For the first time there is a strong demand
from/awareness amongst members of the civil
society for national/regional/local disaster mitigation
and management strategies. This has presented new
opportunities to mainstream disaster Risk Mitigation
and Management in all programmes
Significant Causes of Infrastructure
Damage
Engineered
(Institutional Buildings)
 Quality of construction and
construction materials
 Lack of seismic
considerations
 Lack of monitoring
 Building codes ( dichotomy )
??
 Governance weakness
Non-Engineered
(Private Buildings/Homes)
 Lack of awareness about
seismically resistant design
 Siting of structures
 Aspiration to modernize with
insufficient knowledge of
safe construction
 Cost
Opportunities
The donor agencies (World Bank/ADB/JICA et al) as
part of the Damage and Need Assessment report
have highlighted the need for Hazard Risk
Management as an important cross cutting issue.
 This is the right time to start building a culture of
resilience and safety in all tiers of the society.
 There needs to be a sustained effort to advice and
strengthen the potential programmes of the
government in multi hazard risk management.
Recommendations
(learning from the disaster)
 Increase public awareness about hazard risk
management.
 Urgent need for de-centralised Disaster Management
Plan which decentralise Disaster Response
Mechanism to the District/Town Nazims (mayors)
 Build capacity of professionals and government
officials.

Safe building practices and earthquake resistant
design.
 Develop and enforce simple building codes for rural
and peri-urban areas.
 Vigilance in monitoring to ensure adherence to safe
building codes.
Recommendations (contd…)
(learning from the disaster)
 Introduce effective communication mechanism
amongst stakeholders.
 Develop a preparedness program to minimize
damage in case of future natural disasters.
 Develop a school Earthquake Safety Programme.
 Build in Environmental issues as integral part of all
sector re-building plans (200 million tons of
rubble/debris), forest, eco-system
A short term programme is being firmed up to address the urgent
needs of creating awareness about safe building practices, school
earthquake safety programme and building up capacity of government
officials .
Way forward
within the priorities of actions of Hyogo Framework
 The Draft National Disaster Management Plan prepared by
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the Government with assistance from UNDP in 2003 should
be urgently re-visited, updated and approved.
Human and Institutional capacities at Local, Regional and
National level needs to be built.
Capacity of at least ONE center of learning in each province
needs to be built to provide specialised courses in disaster
management.
Multi hazard risk assessment should be carried out at local
level
Systematic documentation of emergency response to 8th
Oct. 2005 EQ should be carried out –what worked and what
did not work
Disaster preparedness planning should be institutionalized
in all Rehabilitation programmers and at all tiers
Way forward
within the priorities of actions of Hyogo Framework
 Mainstream risk reduction in development planning of
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known potential hazard eg in known seismic zones.
Urgent programme to advice/guide home builders in hazard
(earthquake etc) resistant building techniques
Develop all community infrastructure including schools,
health units etc to high hazard resilient standards so that
they can act as community emergency shelters in future
disaster(s)
Integrate environmental conservation and restoration.
School Earthquake and hazard safety programme should
urgently be instituted. It should target teachers, students
and both structural as well as non-structural elements.
Response and preparedness: Regulatory framework should
be established emphasizing decentralised disaster
management system.