Afghan survivors get new homes six months after a deadly earthquake

Issued on: 12/20/2022 – 3:18 AM, amended: 12/20/2022 – 03:16

Barmal District (Afghanistan) (AFP) Six months after the devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, laborer Rasool Badshah moved into a new home, but without his mother, who was killed by collapsing walls.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced after the 5.9-magnitude earthquake – the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century – hit the impoverished province of Paktika on June 22.

“When I got here, my mother and brothers were buried,” Badshah, 21, told AFP, explaining how he rushed back to his village from Pakistan where he worked.

Hundreds of earthquake-resistant concrete homes, many built by local workers with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have now been handed over to survivors who until now had been living in makeshift tent cities.

Hundreds of earthquake-resistant concrete homes, many built by local workers with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, have now been handed over to survivors © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

Badshah said, “We couldn’t build these houses, not even our children or grandchildren (we could) … We couldn’t afford them. We lived in shacks.”

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

Even before the earthquake, Afghanistan was in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe exacerbated by the Taliban’s seizure of power in August 2021.

Taliban security personnel walk after a handover ceremony for newly built homes. © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

The international development finance on which the South Asian country relied dried up after the takeover and assets abroad were frozen.

Survivor Para Khan said the remote eastern region where the quake occurred had been neglected by the authorities for years.

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

“Everyone was brought up illiterate.”

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will begin work to build two schools and a clinic in the area, which is still strewn with rubble, after winter.

The new homes are equipped with solar panels, stand-alone toilets and traditional heaters to help residents weather the harsh winters. © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

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

© 2022 AFP

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