Provision of durable Shelter assistance for earthquake affected population in Badakhshan province. On October 26th 2015, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Badakhshan, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure across the region. Afghanaid and partner organisation FOCUS implemented a 5-month project, funded by CHF, to distribute emergency cash assistance to earthquake affected families. The project reached a total of 14,975 beneficiaries in 10 districts of Badakhshan, running between December 1st 2015 and April 30th 2016. Families whose homes were completely destroyed (Category A) and severely damaged (Category B) were given cash assistance to make repairs to their homes and purchase essential food, fuel, winterization and other items. 

Despite the rapid response, there remains a large population who have not rebuilt and returned to their homes or moved into appropriate alternative accommodation. Afghanaid’s monitoring report prepared in April 2016 indicated that a significant number of the affected families under category A have not managed to reconstruct their destroyed houses and are in serious need of shelter. With the coordination of the ES/NFI clusters, Afghanaid completed a further assessment on 21st August 2016 to determine the current shelter needs of earthquake-affected households. A representative sample of 195 out of 689 previously assisted category A households, and 228 out of 1460 category B households across 9 districts were selected. The findings of the assessment indicate that under category A about 13% still remains completely destroyed which can be estimated to be about 80 houses from the 689 houses. For both category A and B, only 35% of the houses have their foundations, walls and roofs completed.

The proposed intervention will build about 80 new shelters for families living in completely destroyed category A houses. Because the number 80 is only an estimate from the rapid sample survey (excluding Teshkan and Shuhada), Afghanaid project staff together with the district shelter verification committee will visit each of the Category A houses to ascertain the exact number. For the partially repaired houses, Afghanaid will provide construction materials like windows, doors and timber for roofing to an estimated number of 155 families living in in such houses (excluding Teshkan and Shuhada). This number represents only about 12% of the total estimated number from the needs assessment. Afghanaid will focus assistance to the most vulnerable families so that the limited budget can accommodate the most deserving cases.  Shelter reconstruction will be conducted in the 7 districts: Baharak, Darayem, Yaftal Sufla, Jurm, Shighnan, Zibak and Ishkashim.

Standard houses will be constructed following UNHCR standards guidelines at an estimate cost of USD 2,637 per house (the BoQ is attached as an annex- 2a). Construction will be done in phases and money will be released when each phase is completed and approved by Afghanaid’s Provincial Chief Engineer. For instance, when the foundation is completed, money will be released to start the next phase which will be construction of the wall. The next phase will follow the same process until the house is completed. UNOCHA will be invited to visit the project site and monitor the on-going work any time during the construction process.

For category B houses that have not been fully repaired, the project will provide windows, doors and timber for construction, depending on need for each case. Afghanaid engineers will supervise and monitor on a daily basis during the construction period to ensure that the construction is done within the planned four month period.
We will encourage the construction to be undertaken by the beneficiaries themselves. However, for households lacking in skilled or sufficient labour for construction, we will hire skilled labour from the local community. Construction of the houses will be stopped for 3 months winter break from 1st January to 31st March 2017 and will resume from 1st of April to 30th June 2017