Maggie Stephenson, UN-Habitat, offered an additional presentation and then
opened the discussion on the aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake in
which some 600,000 houses had been destroyed, and where there were no
donor-assisted housing programmes. The optimum rebuilding solution
for UN-Habitat was a traditional building type, a light
"dhajji" timber frame built of local materials and able to withstand the earthquake. However, due to a lack of
technical support from NGOs, efforts to promote safer construction
techniques were often defeated.
The discussion that followed
included input from participants on similar experiences in Sri Lanka
and Peru, and on the need to improve means of promoting safer
reconstruction.