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25 January 2002 By Bijoy Patro and Pamela Davie in Bhuj One year after the devastating earthquake which tore through the Indian state of Gujarat, a young mother - Radha - sits amidst the salvaged remnants of her family compound on the outskirts of the town of Bhachau. Clutching her two year old son she indicates the now empty space where her house once stood . It was here that in the space of a few seconds her brother and his three children died when the house collapsed during the quake on January 26 last year. She is still struggling to come to terms with the loss. Her husband had no choice but to leave home to search for work in Bombay when the local brick factory where he was employed also collapsed in the quake. "We escaped with our lives but it is hard to forget what happened. The only thing keeping me going is my son," she says. Radha is not alone in her struggle. The earthquake destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and claimed the lives of twenty thousand people across Gujurat. In towns and villages, piles of rubble and cracked buildings serve as constant reminders of the quake and thousands of people remain homeless, camped out in tents or temporary shelters. The massive scale of devastation together with a complex multi-tiered compensation system, has meant that progress in reconstruction has been slow. "We have waived all taxes on construction materials in the state but it will probably take a further two years before everyone will have a permanent roof over their head," says Harshkumar Chibber, Head of the district administration in Kutch where over 400,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Despite the continuing hardship, the people of Gujarat are demonstrating their resilience. In most affected villages people are getting on with the job of rebuilding their communities. But Lakshman Chetri, the International Federation's infrastructure coordinator is concerned that in the rush to rebuild Gujurat, lessons from the earthquake have not being learnt: " There is no talk of safety norms. Very few organisations are providing advice on what designs an earthquake resistant structure must incorporate," he says. As part of their three year rehabilitation programme, the Indian Red Cross, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is constructing a two hundred bed hospital in the town of Bhuj. Two hundered and fifty village anganwadis (village kindergartens) are also being built and a private housing programme is well underway. "Although it is prefabricated, the hospital we are constructing is designed to resist earthquake tremors like last year's as well as cyclones with wind speeds of about 180 km per hour," explains Chetri. In an attempt to address the problems created by drought in the region, the Indian Red Cross is rehabilitating traditional water harvesting reservoirs which will supply safe drinking water and help improve agriculture. Over 300 small dams and reservoirs have been excavated and the results are already evident in villages such as Dharampur, situated close to epicentre of the quake. Of the 650 houses in the village, only two were left intact after the quake struck. But a year on, a reservoir built here by the Red Cross now brims with water collected from last year's monsoon rains. It has changed the lives of local residents, particularly women, who had to face a six kilometre trek in the dry season to fetch water from a neighbouring well. In addition to physical reconstruction, improving community capacity to cope with disasters, and thier effects, is also an important facet of the rehabilitation process. The Indian Red Cross is running an integrated health programme (spreading health and hygiene education to adults and children through a network of volunteers trained in community based first aid) in the attempt to strengthen communities. The programme targets 500,000 people across 400 villages in Kutch. "Improving the health and welfare of communities means that they are less vulnerable when they have to face disasters," comments Dr. J. Ganthimathi, Deputy Secretary of the Indian Red Cross Society. The earthquake has also provided an opportunity for the Indian Red Cross to build up its own disaster preparedness capacity in what is the second most disaster prone country in the world . "We are setting up a Disaster Management Centre at our national headquarters to improve our response to future disasters," Dr. Ramalingam explains. "Our branch in Gujurat has a vision for a state-wide disaster preparedness programme which we also plan to extend to other disaster prone states in India." Related links: India earthquake - anniversary page More on India |
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