especially that on the slopes - roads, water mills and fish farms; and finally, the huge amount of debris, the safe disposal of which poses a major environmental challenge.

In a second part, the report identifies the most serious risks resulting from the earthquake, including the danger of flash floods and more landslides; the pressure on dwindling natural resources, especially forests for fuel and shelter needs; health hazards due to poor sanitation and inadequate solid waste management practices in the relief camps; the dangers of heavy siltation in rivers feeding into the Mangla Dam and those of haphazard reconstruction. The earthquake also has important psycho-social risks, which might have far reaching socio-economic implications, if affected people become dependent on relief aid and lose their motivation for work.

The environmental needs and suggestions on the way ahead are the subject of the report’s last section, divided into planning stage interventions and sector-wise interventions. The former include calling for proper land use and zoning plans; enforcement of updated building codes and guidelines (extended to the mountain hamlets); mainstreaming of multiple hazards and environmental risks into all development sectors, policies and procedures, especially to develop a comprehensive natural disaster risk management framework for mountain areas. The need for collaboration between the government, civil society, private sector and the academia to design and implement such a framework is also laid out.
Among the sector-wise interventions, the report outlines the need for a coordinated effort for information and knowledge dissemination; technical assistance in camp management; optimal and environment-friendly ways and means for catering to the energy and construction requirements; restoration of livelihoods; rehabilitation of rural community infrastructure; and sustainable forest management and environmental rehabilitation.
Finally, the report claims that the lessons learnt from the earthquake should inform the approaches to rehabilitation and reconstruction. The earthquake, though devastating, has created unique opportunities for rebuilding and re-engineering of the social, economic, environmental and cultural fabrics and institutional arrangements for research, planning and service delivery in the affected areas.

For more information

Please contact Nikhat Sattar at nikhat.sattar@iucnp.org