Economy

Six months after deadly earthquake, Afghan survivors get new homes

By AFP

This photo taken from a helicopter on December 15 shows tents and newly built houses constructed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Barmal district, Paktika province. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

This photo taken from a helicopter on December 15 shows tents and newly built houses constructed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Barmal district, Paktika province. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

Labourer Rasool Badshah has moved into a new home six months after a deadly earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan, but without his mother, who was killed by collapsing walls.

More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless after the 5.9-magnitude quake -- the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century -- struck the impoverished province of Paktika on June 22.

"When I reached here, my mother, brothers, everyone was already buried," Badshah, 21, told AFP, explaining how he rushed back to his village from Pakistan, where he was working.

Hundreds of earthquake-resilient concrete homes, many built by local labourers with the support of the United Nations (UN) refugee agency, have now been handed over to survivors who were until now living in makeshift tent cities.

A truck carries humanitarian aid from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for earthquake survivors in the Afghan-Dubai village of Spera district, Khost province, on June 27. [Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP]

A truck carries humanitarian aid from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for earthquake survivors in the Afghan-Dubai village of Spera district, Khost province, on June 27. [Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP]

In this photo taken on December 15 Afghans sit outside newly built houses constructed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Barmal district, Paktika province. More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake -- the deadliest in Afghanistan in almost a quarter of a century -- struck the impoverished province of Paktika on June 22. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

In this photo taken on December 15 Afghans sit outside newly built houses constructed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Barmal district, Paktika province. More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake -- the deadliest in Afghanistan in almost a quarter of a century -- struck the impoverished province of Paktika on June 22. [Wakil Kohsar/AFP]

"We couldn't have built these houses, not even our children or grandchildren [could have]... we could not afford it. We were living in huts," Badshah said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the new homes are equipped with solar panels, independent toilets and traditional heaters to help residents face harsh winters.

Even before the earthquake, Afghanistan has been in the grip of a humanitarian disaster since August 2021.

International development funding on which the South Asian country relied has dried up, and assets held abroad are still frozen.

The remote east where the quake struck had been neglected by authorities for many years, said survivor Bara Khan.

"After the earthquake, people came and saw that residents of the area were in trouble. We don't even have a clinic or a school," Khan said.

"Everybody has grown up illiterate."

The UNHCR will start work to build two schools and a clinic in the area, still strewn with rubble, after the winter.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

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Such houses are really useful for areas like Paktia, Paktika, Kunar, Badakhshan, i.e. mountainous areas. The mountainous regions of Afghanistan are very vulnerable to earthquakes. Please build such resistant houses in Badakhshan for the residents of that province who are vulnerable. A few years ago, several hundred people were killed in the districts of Badakhshan as a result of a severe earthquake.

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I am glad that houses have been built for Paktika earthquake victims. These houses are resistant to earthquakes; God willing, people will be safe in them. If proper work is done, such houses can be built for poor people with little money. I have a design for houses for poor people. This design is not mine, someone else told me a few months ago, but it seems important. Housing authorities should take it into consideration. For example, this is a sign dividing an area into four parts. It has formed four right angles. On this account, two walls have been built to build four houses, and two more will need to be built. In other words, it is economically very cheap. That is, a person can say that four houses can be built for $20 thousand; each house will have three rooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. Also, it is possible to construct a guest room for every four squares or sixteen houses to protect the guests because Afghans are hospitable people, and it is necessary to have a guest room. A shared guest room also reduces the burden on people, and less land will be consumed.

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The earthquake that occurred on 22 of June, 2022 in Barmal district of Paktika Province was recorded as the deadliest earthquake in the history of Afghanistan, as a result of which 1000 people were killed and thousands of people were left homeless. The people of this village are mostly poor and weak. The United Nations (UNHCR) really did a great service by building concrete houses for the poor people of this village. These concrete houses could not be built by the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, nor by the people of the villages themselves. The people of southern Afghanistan will never forget this humanitarian aid of the United Nations. The people of this village were transferred from the tents to new concrete houses equipped with modern toilets and solar panels, and each person received his house from the United Nations. We Afghans are asking the United Nations through the Salam Times newspaper, which always publishes the reports of the United Nations, to open the two schools and a clinic in the same village of Barmal district after the end of this winter, start building it so that the children of this village are not deprived of education, because education is their right. If the United Nations would not do this, the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which is facing economic problems, would not be able to build houses for these people. Thanks for the sympathy of the United Nations with the people of Afghanistan.

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