PAKISTAN: Government fails in earthquake response
From Green Left Weekly, October 26, 2005. Rizwan Atta, Lahore Although no-one knows the exact figure, the 7.6 magnitude earthquake on October 8 killed an estimated 53,000 people. On October 13, the World Health Organisation's regional director Hussein Gezairy said the earthquake was a bigger catastrophe than last year's tsunami in terms of the number of the people made homeless and the extent of destruction to infrastructure. In the most affected areas, 80-90% of buildings collapsed. An estimated 8000 school buildings were destroyed or damaged in five districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Pakistani authorities estimate that 4 million people were directly affected by the earthquake, including 1 million who lost all shelter and livelihood. While officials say that nothing happened to nuclear facilities near Kahota, media are unable to enter to confirm, as the area is under military control. There were no resources available for rescue operations in ...