In particular, the town of Bhachau with its 100,000 inhabitants was highly affected. It took three years to make a final project plan for the reconstruction of the town in cooperation with the World Bank. In the meantime, another urgent problem of the poorest population had to be solved: The inhabitants of the former slums were not entitled to receive public reconstruction aid, because they and their houses had not been registered before the quake. At the urging of profiteers, the slum districts should be declared as industrial areas. By this means, the poorest of the poor should be expelled from their territory. Due to intensive lobbying, however, the former slums were declared as residential areas, and it was even possible to secure a state allowance for reconstruction. Since 2004, Malteser International is rebuilding 500 houses for the most disadvantaged population in Bhachau. The last houses (25sqm for a family with five persons) were handed over to their owners in the summer of 2007. That way, the families have a safe shelter again and can extend their houses in the future. Due to the water shortage in the barren region, the houses are built with adobe strengthened with cement. Site foremen and construction workers among them many women are trained in modern construction techniques and basic techniques for earthquake-resistant construction.

After the earthquake, many houses were rebuilt by their owners in a makeshift way, often without the stabilizing iron-concrete strengthening that keeps the roof on the walls during an earthquake. Engineers of our partner organisations have developed a method to retrofit these buildings, too. More than 250 houses have been retrofitted in our projects and thus secured for the families.
In summer 2007, there were still families in the region around Bhachau that could not yet reconstruct their home. This is why, until summer 2008, further 150 houses are being built.