Pak to hold donor meet for quake-hit areas

The donor meet will be held in July to garner private sector support for building schools in the quake-hit regions.

Pakistan's earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority (ERRA) will hold a national donors meet in July to garner private sector support for building schools and hospitals in the quake-hit Pakistani regions, a media report said.

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"Instead of seeking cash donations from the participants of the conference, ERRA will ask them to provide health and educational facilities for the people affected by the Oct 8, 2005, devastating earthquake," the English-language Dawn newspaper quoted ERRA chief Altaf M Salim as saying.

An international donors' conference held in Islamabad last November pledged over $6 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the areas hit by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and parts of the country's North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

The quake killed an estimated 75,000 people while causing massive destruction in an area spreading over 28,000 square km.

Salim said a survey of 100,000 houses - out of the total 600,000 to be rebuilt in the quake-hit areas in the next three years - had been completed.

He hoped that the entire survey work for the housing sector would be completed in the next two months.

He added that a mechanism for transparency has also been put in place in consultation with the donors for "effective" utilisation of the money in reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

Salim added that the government might also import cement from India and other countries, if need be, for construction of new houses, schools and hospitals.

India pledged $25 million for the reconstruction process in the donors conference.