PAKISTAN: Relief effort hampered by logistics as weather improves

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

MUZAFFARABAD, 12 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Four days after the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan and India, killing at least 40,000 people, relief supplies have started to reach more isolated quake-hit areas after bad weather cleared. But many challenges lie ahead in meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of an estimated 1 million survivors, officials said on Wednesday.

"The aid is coming through, but yes, it's not sufficient. We know that," Jan Vandemoortele, UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan said in the capital, Islamabad. "But we are getting more international commitments," he noted.

Bad weather that hampered the massive relief effort earlier in the week began to clear on Wednesday and helicopters were able to deliver relief supplies that have poured into Pakistan from about 30 countries.

Many bodies were still buried beneath destroyed buildings, and the United Nations again stressed the scale of the crisis and warned of the threat of measles, cholera and diarrhea outbreaks among the millions of survivors.

"Indeed this disaster is of unprecedented proportions, the magnitude is becoming clear with 4 million people affected, and it is something that no government and no organisation in the world can cope with at all. It'll be a joint effort," Vandemoortele said.

The earthquake has destroyed more than 80 percent of structures and buildings in parts of northern Pakistan, and strong aftershocks are threatening buildings already damaged by the initial earthquake. Many cities and villages in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and NWFP, the most affected areas, have been wiped out.

On Tuesday, rain, wind and cold hindered relief efforts from the 7.6-magnitude earthquake. Severe thunderstorms, some containing hail, temporarily grounded relief flights out of Islamabad. As darkness embraced the area and storms faded away, the cold air threatened those millions sleeping in tents or on open ground.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that the immediate humanitarian needs in the shattered city of Muzaffarabad, 150 km north of Islamabad, in addition to water and blankets, include 15,000 winterised tents for the city and 116,000 for rural areas.

OCHA added that food is immediately needed for 15,000 families in the city and 116,000 in rural areas. Wheat flour, rice, milk, sugar, pulses (beans) and cooking oil are desperately required. A 250-bed field hospital is required in addition to what has been already provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Russia.

Moving the huge amounts of relief supplies to the quake-hit areas is emerging as a big challenge. Some trucking companies in Islamabad and the capital of NWFP, Peshawar, are reported to be demanding high prices for their services.

"We have got a lot of relief stuff with us, but transportation is a big problem. Truckers are demanding three times the [normal] rates for Muzaffarabad and other areas," Anwar Kazmi, spokesman of the Pakistan's largest charity, Edhi Foundation said from the southern city of Karachi.

More than 4 million people are affected, of whom 1 million are in acute need of assistance and 2 million homeless.

[ENDS]