In Brief: Pakistan quake victims four years on

Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN

Muhammad Irfan's youngest brother cannot recall anything of life before the 2005 quake

ISLAMABAD, 8 October 2009 (IRIN) - Exactly four years after the devastating earthquake of 8 October 2005 in northern Pakistan, almost all the 3.5 million people made homeless have been re-housed, officials say.

About 600,000 houses (90 percent of them in rural areas) were destroyed or badly damaged. Almost all have been repaired except for a few where there are disputes over ownership. In urban areas 90 percent of houses have been repaired, Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan of the government’s National Disaster Management Authority told IRIN.

Many new houses were put up by the government’s Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). However, some construction work in badly affected cities such as Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, continues.

The quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed more than 75,000 people.

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