Impact of Reconstruction on the earthquake affected Business Community: A Case Study of Balakot

Abstract

The topic of this research study is "Impact of Reconstruction on the Earthquake Affected Business Community". This research took place in Balakot bazaar. The focus of this research is on assessing the short and long-term impacts of natural disasters and other phases included in the disaster cycle and on how the business community survived and faced the challenges brought on by the earthquake. This research comprised of different stages. The objectives of this research were clarified and the aims of this study were presented initially. This research is based on the effects of an emthquake that occurred in Pakistan in 2005. On 8 October 2005 at 8:50 a.m., a 7.6 magnitude emihquake struck northern Pakistan causing serious damage in the North West Frontier Provi nce (NWFP) now called Khyber Pukhtunkhawa Province and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). This emthquake also struck the province of Punjab and capital city of Islamabad. Over 4000 villages were affected, 73,000 people killed, 79,000 injured and 3.3 million people rendered homeless. Over 470,000 houses were completely destroyed (Larsen and Bliss, 2006:2). This earthquake threatened not only the physical landscape but also the socio-economic scene of the area. Consequently, this disaster was not only natural but social and cultural as well because it took place within a palticular social context. It is essential to observe the ways in which human activity and social structures add vulnerabilities to a disaster and the diversity of opportunities that various social factors bring to both the disaster response and reconstruction. Moreover, profound social change is possible as the result of a natural disaster: Thus, the "same" disaster may have quite different meanings and effects in different social and economic contexts. Certainly, the basic idea of the disaster research is that the disasters are naturally social phenomena and that disasters have their foundation in social system or social structure