MANILA: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday it has approved a $5mn 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 between 8,000 and 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 metres, 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 3.5mn people, and about 80% of the population in the affected areas remains homeless.
The earthquake also damaged about 70% 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. – DPA |
