MANILA, March 30 (Online): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday it has approved a $5 million grant to help poor households affected by the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan begin restoring their livelihoods.
The Manila-based ADB said the grant, which comes from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, would target 8,000 to 10,000 poor and vulnerable households in largely inaccessible earthquake-affected areas.
"The project will provide households living at higher altitudes with material for the cultivation of spring crops, such as maize, fodder and vegetables," it said. "The higher-altitude districts above 1,500 m, were relatively more affected than lover-lying areas."
Landless community members would also be given small amounts of livestock and poultry, including shelters and feeds.
The ADB noted that the earthquake in October 2005 was "arguably the most debilitating natural disaster in Pakistan’s history." It affected about 3.5 million people, and about 80 percent of the population in the affected areas remains homeless.
The earthquake also damaged about 70 percent of harvested and standing crops, and killed about half of the animals. Irrigation and soil conservation structures, as well as livestock shelters, were extensively damaged.
"The most urgent needs are subsistence-level crop and livestock husbandry activities to ensure food-security for the landless and those who lost their livestock, and the shelters to stock livestock from perishing in the cold of the Himalayan winter," said ADB project economist Ahsan Tayyab.
The project would also rehabilitate small-scale facilities, such as drinking water supplies.
The ADB said the project complements ADB’s "Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project", which was backed by an assistance package comprising a $220 million loan and an $80 million grant in December 2005.
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