Hazy Impact of Disaster: Pakistan, UN prepare for Donors’ Moot  
By Mumtaz Hamid Rao - PakistanTimes.net Editor & Special Correspondent

MUZAFFARABAD (AJK): With the overall impact of the Oct-8 killer Quake, still in haze, Pakistan and the United Nations on Tuesday laid out a folio of vital needs for the devastated people, ahead of a major donors meeting, as rescuers struggled to reach survivors before bad weather closes in.

Even now, tens of thousands of people remain without adequate shelter and food more than two weeks after the disaster, despite repeated warnings by UN chiefs that the world has not done enough to help.

Donor nations will meet Wednesday in the Swiss city of Geneva where they will face fresh pleas to contribute tents, helicopters and relief cash before winter snows add to the death toll of more than 60,000.

"We will be trying to make sure the world understands the scope of the disaster, to really bring home how very serious it is," UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Azad Kashmir.

Update on Global Pledge

She pointed out that only 90 million dollars had so far been pledged towards the UN's 312-million-dollar appeal for victims of the 7.6-magnitude quake. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who is due to address Wednesday's conference is set to visit Pakistan in mid-November to keep the issue in the spotlight, another UN official said.

Pakistan needs help not only to care for survivors in the immediate future but also to meet the gargantuan costs of rebuilding an entire areas, which were flattened by the quake.

Shelter remains Priority

And in Islamabad, a press communiqué by the United Nations said that despite the lapse of over two weeks the impact of disaster is 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.

“Women who were at home and children in school were especially affected,” it said by adding; the powerful earthquake struck northern parts of Pakistan killing at least 60,000, injuring around 75,000 and leaving approximately 3 million other people shelterless.

The Humanitarian community has been working together in coordinated relief operation for the last two weeks. The Pakistan Government swiftly responded, mobilizing military and civilian resources to the affected areas, and immediately requesting international assistance; the humanitarian community deployed search and rescue, coordination and other emergency teams within hours.

Massive Relief Operation

“A massive relief operation is underway, but efforts face unprecedented logistical challenges in approximately 30,000 square kilometres of high-altitude terrain, with many roads destroyed, and worsening weather conditions. Other infrastructure has also been severely damaged or destroyed, including hospitals, schools and water and sanitation networks,” it said.

All possible modes of transport are being used to get food and shelter to those most in need, from people on foot and mule trains up to heavy trucks and the world’s largest helicopters. A UN Flash Appeal was launched within three days of the disaster, but the international community has contributed just over 90 million US dollars so far, which represents a relatively small percentage of the funds needed.

The UN noted that “Shelter remains the overriding priority, both for homeless families and patients admitted to field medical facilities. Severe aftershocks are causing patients to evacuate hospitals at night, with the injured preferring to be outdoors than in already damaged buildings. Current world stocks of tents will not meet the needs, thousands more winterized tents and blankets are required urgently. Local stocks in Pakistan have been exhausted, but production is being increased in other countries.

Around 200,000 tents will be in country by the start of the winter: this will shelter less than half the homeless families, let alone the needs of field hospitals for post-operative patients. Having to wait days for basic medical assistance or undergoing operations and treatment in poorly equipped or partially destroyed hospitals has increased the rate of life-threatening infections and gangrene; the breakdown of safe water supplies and sanitation has also increased the risk of diarrhoeal diseases and other outbreaks.

Need for Winterized Tents

Amid this situation, the United Nations on Tuesday said that a further 210,000 winterized tents are needed for homeless families along with blankets, stoves and fuel in the quake-hit parts of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

Relief agencies trying to get aid to the millions of earthquake survivors in country's northern parts are racing against time, as snowfall is expected in the next three weeks, said a UN news release, transmitted to media including Pakistan's first daily E-newspaper, 'PakistanTimes.net' on Tuesday.

With bad weather conditions forecast for the coming few days, communities in the remotest areas are still beyond reach, even with air resources able to move ever closer to allow increased sorties. Shelter remains the greatest priority, especially as daily information is received detailing yet more towns with near 100% devastation.

For example in Batgram it is estimated that 90% of structures in Bagh [AJK] have collapsed and almost 100% in the Nasera district of the Jhelum Valley. Around 200,000 tents are in the pipeline and several camps have been sent up, but the humanitarian agencies and military working together on the problem are piloting alternative solutions such as shelter repair kits and use of locally available scrap metal.

Camps vary in size from small family clusters to three camps in Muzaffarabad with a capacity of up to 6,000. The NATO airlift of UNHCR aid items will bring 15,000 tents in the next couple of days.

Rapid Missions

UN agencies have been undertaking rapid assessment missions in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys. Thousands of people there require urgent medical assistance, clean water and shelter, with nearly 100% of buildings uninhabitable; in addition, the logistical challenges for delivery are reported to be significant, with access roads blocked by landslides, not expected to be cleared for several weeks.

Many survivors are collecting aid and taking it home on foot. Food rations are reaching some towns regularly now, but WFP is working with partners such as GOAL and the local organization NRSP to set up a supply line for the affected areas before they are cut off by snowfall.

Nearly 60,000 kilos of flour and over 34,000 kilos of pulses were delivered on Sunday, October-23 alone, in the Muzaffarabad and Bagh districts. Mules, rafts, and hikers are still being used to facilitate distribution, as well as helicopters where possible.

Although safe water and sanitation have been restored in parts of Muzaffarabad and Bagh, the agencies working in the sector report severe damage to the system in Bagh. However, UNICEF and IFRC have sent in repair teams and have also arranged solid waste disposal with the help of WHO and Oxfam. USAID and the Ministry of Environment have also delivered treatment plants for Bagh.

Health Care

Healthcare is also being brought to stranded communities by mobile clinics operating in villages as well as the main relief hubs. While there is more capacity in the field hospitals in larger towns, priorities continue to be more winterized tents for patients, basic medical equipment for the smaller clinics, and the need for a field hospital in Batagram, where the local facility has been severely damaged and is not fit for use. However, 2,000 patients are being treated daily in the city.

Abbas Hospital in Muzaffarabad now has enough tents and beds to serve 200 post-operative patients. UNICEF, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Turkish medical teams have immunized over 13,000 children in the town against measles and other diseases. The humanitarian hubs in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Bagh are holding regular coordination meetings for the organizations working in the various aid clusters.

In Mansehra these are held daily in the Karakaram Hotel at 19.30 p.m. in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays, at the same time, at the UN camp. The UNDAC teams in those locations are also liaising with the military and the Government, monitoring the security situation, gathering data and coordinating rapid assessment missions to remote locations.

After more than two weeks, despite a massive ongoing relief operation, the challenges remain the same, and the humanitarian community is still trying to get shelter, food, medicine and safe water to millions in the Himalayas, before the winter sets in.●