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Pakistan -

Case Study LEDC Earthquake

26 March

2015

14:33

Kashmir – October 2005

Background

The Kashmir region is to the north of Pakistan and

sits on a destructive plate margin, where the Indian Plate is being forced

under the Eurasian Plate. On October 8th

2005, an Earthquake hit the region at 8:50am, measuring 7.6 on the Richter

scale. Compression caused low angle thrust faults. Movement along a thrust

fault triggered the quake. The focus of the earthquake was at a depth of 16

miles (26km), and the epicentre was 105km north of Islamabad, in the foothills

of the Himalayas, and very close to Muzaffarabad. A 75km long crack in the

Earth’s surface was formed, and there was damage to an area of 30000km2, and was felt from Kabul in Afghanistan,

and Delhi in India. By October 27th

2005, there had been 978 aftershocks, all of which measured at least 4 on the

Richter scale. It was the 13th most

destructive earthquake on record.

Hazards

The primary hazard was the violent shaking caused by

the seismic waves. In a mountainous region with steep and unstable slops, the

Earthquake was followed by landslides, over areas which are populated by 15

million people. The landslides also blocked rivers, threatening flooding.

Vulnerability

87% of the population live in rural areas, many

living in isolated villages in the Jhelum and Neelum valleys, meaning that

getting access to aid and emergengy relief is difficult, and only really

achieveable by helicpoter. Thousands were cut off for days due to landslides,

and people living above the winter snowline are particularly vulnerable. This

resulted in overcrowded refugee camps, poor sanitation and lack of heating,

tents and clean drinking water.

Poverty is widespread, with 30% of the population

living below the poverty line.

There was also little hazard management in place –

there was no local disaster planning in place.

Buildings are not designed to be Earthquake resistant (many were made

from stone and cement blocks lain in weak sand or mud mortar), were structually

poor. Communication networks were also poor, with few roads that were badly

constructed.

Impacts

Social

80000 deaths, mostly caused by collapsed buildings

Hundreds of thousands were injured, including around 6000 in India

- 3 million homeless

- Water pipelines and electricity lines were broken,

cutting off supplies

- Landslides buried buildings and people, They also

blocked access roads and cut off water supplies, electricity supplies and

telephone lines

- Diarrhoea and other diseases spread due to little

clean water

- Freezing winter conditions shortly after the

earthquake caused more causalities and made resucue operations tougher

Economic

- The earthquake cost about $5 billion

- Whole villages and thousands of buildings were

destroyed – 80% of the town of Uri was destroyed. Areas up to 25km from the

epicentre had 25% of buildings collapse and 50% severely damaged. The total

cost of rebuilding was $3.5 billion

Environmental

- There were 2 major landslides that effected an area

of over 0.1km2 – one in Muzaffarabad

and one in the Jhelum valley

- The Jhelum valley landslide was the largest – 1km

wide and debris reached 2km away from the top of the slide. The debris created

a dam at the bottom of the valley,

blocking 2 rivers

- The ground had shifted by more than 5m in some

areas

Response

Tents, blankets and medical

supplies were distributed in a month, but not to all area

The Pakistani government set

up the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) and the Earthquake Reconstruction

and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) to coordinate activities with other

international agencies and non-governmental organisations

International aid and

equipment such as helicopters

40000 people have been

relocated to a new town from the destroyed town of Balakot

Government money has been

given to people whose homes were destroyed

Training has been provided to

help rebuild more buildings as earthquake resistant

New

health centres have been set up in the area