Relief, Rehabiliation And Reconstruction

Role of SRSP in Reconstruction

After successful and transparent relief operations in the earthquake affected areas of Abbottabad, Mansehra and Battagram districts of NWFP, SRSP went into agreement with PPAF for reconstruction and rehabilitation project. This project is a privilege for SRSP as apart from Pakistan ARMY in these two districts i.e. Mansehra & Battagram, the only non-government organisation working in reconstruction of housing is SRSP till now.
PPAF is implementing the reconstruction of housing project in 34 union councils of the earthquake affected areas of NWFP and AJK with 6 partner organisations including SRSP. Out of the total 34 UCs, SRSP has got the largest number of union councils i.e. 14 the rest of the 20 are divided among NRSP, Islamic Relief, SUNGI, Omar Asghar Khan Foundation and Women Welfare Organisation Poonch.
The project agreement was signed with PPAF on 19th April, 2006. Initially the project was launched in Boogermang union council of Mansehra with only four Social Mobilisation Teams (SMTs) as pilot phase. This was after one month increased to 44 SMTs.

Structure of SMTs

Process followed by SMT'S

The process of damage assessment followed by disbursement and construction of houses is as followed:

1) Mobilization

A message is disseminated in the local communities two days prior to damage assessment. Then a meeting is held with Union Council Nazim, councillors, other community members. In this meeting, community is informed about the guide lines, process and procedures of damage assessment made by ERRA. Community is asked to nominate two literate members who can assist SMT in identification of houses.

2) Damage Assessment

The SMT along with government representative visit each and every house for their damage assessment. First of all the name of the house owner is compared with the list provided by army and to whom the first cheque of Rs. 25,000/- has already been paid. Then the engineer takes the coordinates and the measurement of the covered area, which is filled into a damage assessment form. Also a picture in front of the destroyed house is taken for proof. After a complete assessment of the house by all the four members of the team, then by the consensus of all the members, the damage category of the house is decided. Land ownership certificate is to be provided by the house owner to the SMT in case of tenants, NOC from the owner is required. Then an MOU is signed between the owner and SRSP for reconstruction of the damaged house.

3) Data Punching

All the assessment forms are submitted to key punch operator in the office on daily basis. Key punch operator is responsible for all the data entry of the filled formats in MIS. The MIS assemble the cases into three categories i.e. incomplete, grievances and complete forms.

4) First Phase Disbursements

Advice slips are prepared for all the cases which are complete and fulfil the ERRA criteria. One copy of the advice slip is provided to house owner for claiming the reconstruction amount from the bank and the other copy remains in SMT for record. An advice list is sent to regional account officer by District Coordinator Reconstruction to be sent to bank for transfer of amount to affectees bank accounts.

6) Second Phase Disbursements:

Houses which are completely collapsed would be eligible for this second tranche of Rs.25, 000/- The ones who would communicate their request for the release of 2nd tranche or as a result of follow-up visits, SMT will inspect the construction carried out up to the plinth level. If eligible the SMT shall issue a certificate of inspection as recommendation for payment. The same process of Advice slip would be used for this disbursement also.

7) Third Phase Disbursements

The third tranche of Rs. 50,000/- would be released after getting inspection certificate from SMT for construction up to roof level. The same process of Advice slip would be used for this disbursement also.

8) Scaling up the programme

After the successful completion of the pilot phase the results revealed that it would require at least 4 SMTs per UC to conduct a rapid damage assessment of all the houses in the union council to release the first phase of disbursements. So that the reconstruction should be started immediately and the work should take a good pace before the next winters sets in. Government as well as the communities were also pressurising PPAF & ERRA to speed up the process of reconstruction.
Keeping in view the afore-mentioned facts it was decided to work out the actual number of SMTs required for finalising the damage assessments within one month. A meeting was held at SRSP Mansehra regional office on 25th May in the presence of CEO, to increase the number of SMTs from 4 to 60. PPAF was asked to increase the resources for 60 SMTs to cover all the 14 UCs in one month. PPAF agreed to 44 SMTs for the period of three months only. They also asked SRSP to in-place these SMTs at the earliest of their capacity.
In a meeting on 26th May 2006 with CEO at Mansehra regional office, the Structure for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Mansehra Mainstream Programme was finalised. Structure is attached as Annex-I. All the office equipment required was worked out and orders were placed immediately. Equipment included computers, GPS, digital cameras and stationary bags. Generators along with large UPS were ordered for Allai, Battagram and Kewai. Additional staff requirement was assessed and it was decided that additional 56 SO’s, 44 KPO’s and 20 engineers would be recruited.
Walk-in interviews were conducted by 4 panels of senior regional staff on 27th of May, 06. A two day’s training programme for the newly recruited staff was held on 30th -31st May, 06. All the 44 Teams were placed in their respective areas and were functional from 1st of June, 2006.
The Summary of SMTs placement is as followed