Chill Starts Killing Folks: Pakistan needs Optimal help, Tents for Quake-hit Areas
By Mumtaz Hamid Rao - PakistanTimes.net Editor & Special Correspondent

MUZAFFARABAD (AJK): With the advent of piercing frosty environs, as an upshot of winter in Quake-stricken areas of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, a number of people have started embracing death after massive destructions of their all types of assets, especially in the hilly terrains, which are inaccessible and are encircled by mighty peaks of the Himalayan locales, a report said on Saturday.

Despites all-out efforts by Pakistan in providing relief to the affected areas in the best possible and swift way, with enormous quantities of items of daily use, shelter remains the main obstacle because of the paucity of much-needed tents in the remote vicinities, which are facing new perils with the advent of every day, overtly posing risks to precious and lovely human lives.

Thus, the essential requirement of the Quake-hit people is the provision of maximum tents and that too, at-once, lest a large number of men, women and children in the far-flung areas take off for eternity, a scenario which seems imminent and virtually has already set in motion.

While the world at large has come-out with hefty commitments, the United Nations has specifically called for the despatch of requisite aid to the tremor-ravaged areas of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, with the provision of tents, as the foremost need of the distress humanity in this part of the world.

Forecast

Amid this situation, dry weather has been forecast during next three days while rain could be expected between 25 to 27th of the October in some parts of the country, Director General metrological department, Qamar Ul Zaman Chaudhry told 'PakistanTimes.net' late on Saturday.

Temperature has been falling resulting in mounting wintry weather day by day in earthquake affected areas, he said. Snow fall would start from December-10 and is expected to continue by the end of January in upper areas, the north of the Muzaffarabad while temperature have been falling below freezing point in upper areas. Transportation in these areas could be badly affected during the season, he observed.

UN Flash Appeal

The United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele said in Islamabad on Saturday that the international community has so far contributed US $ 90 million against the UN flash appeal which represents a relatively small percentage of the funds needed.

"It is very slow response from the international community but the UN will hold a high level donor meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, October 26, to be chaired by Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland to mobilize significant additional financial support from the international community for the appeal," he stated this while addressing the press briefing here at United Nations Information Centre on Saturday.

He said that about 20 percent of the total population of the quake affected areas are yet to be reached. He said that a massive relief operation was underway but efforts face unprecedented logistical challenges in approximately 30,000 square kilometers of high-altitude terrain, with many roads destroyed and worsening weather conditions.

He said that the impact of this disaster was not yet fully clear, and it is unfortunately clear that the numbers of dead and injured are likely to increase as remote settlements are gradually accessed by relief workers.

World stocks of Tents

He said that current world stocks of tents would not meet the needs, thousands more winterized tents and blankets are required urgently. Local stocks in Pakistan had been exhausted, but production is being increased in other countries, he said.

He said that around 0.2 million tents will be in country by the start of the winter, this would shelter less than half the homeless families, let alone the needs of field hospitals for post-operative patients. "About 50 percent of the mountains terrain is unsuitable for tents so that other creative solutions are being worked on, using local knowledge and available materials," he said.

Jan Vandemoortele said that more than 0.1 million tents have been delivered and up to 0.2 million are on their way. Water treatment plants have been installed in Muzaffarabad and Balakot, supplying 17,000 people with 250,000 liters of safe drinking water a day, while a further six plants would be set up in Balakot, Batagram and other locations.

Nine UNFPA mobile health units were now serving over 2000 patients a day in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra as well as providing shuttle services to outlying areas. Most of the staff of the Health Care centers were female doctors and nurse-midwife plus male and female health attendants. We need more tents, more funds and more helicopters to reach the far-flung areas of the quake affected areas, he remarked.

World Bank

Amid this perilous setting, that World Banks pledged on Saturday that it will significantly increase aid to Pakistan to help reconstruct regions devastated by the October-8 earthquake.

A report from Helsinki, Finland says that the World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Saturday that; "We have already said we expect our contribution to grow significantly, especially in the reconstruction phase." "Frankly right now, the scale of the disaster is so enormous, the fact is the big part of the effort has to go finding out what the needs really are."

"My impression is that the government in Pakistan is doing everything that is humanly possible and the money is not the constraint at the moment but there is going to be a lot of help, probably to the tune of several billion dollars and I am sure there is going to be an upward generosity," he added. "The entire world community and certainly the World Bank will participate."●