PAKISTAN: Water a major challenge for earthquake survivors

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

JHELUM VALLEY, 28 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Balancing a huge, iron pot on her head, young Zahida negotiates a steep, rocky track up the side of a mountain. When the rain turns the earth into thick mud, the route is treacherous. But Zahida must still brave the 2-km journey to the nearest mountain stream to collect water as the village spring has dried up.

"Our biggest problem is water and it's not just a problem in our village, but in all the villages here," said Mir Zemaan, the community leader in Mirjali village, sweeping an arm towards the endless valleys around him.

"Our water source has been totally disturbed because of a landslide," he says.

Mirjali is in Langa Pura Union Council in the Jhelum Valley. Around 30,000 people live in Langa Pura and most of their homes were destroyed by the 8 October earthquake that killed over 80,000 people. Aid agencies were quick to act and now all the survivors in the area have basic shelter and food. But few have easily accessible clean water.

When the earthquake raged through northern Pakistan it disrupted water sources. Water pipes broke, mountain springs dried up and water storage tanks cracked leaving hundreds of thousands of survivors without water. To make matters worse, many remaining water supplies have been contaminated by livestock, as well as rubbish and detritus thrown into streams.

The lack of clean water is widespread across most districts affected by the earthquake.

"Water is the biggest problem now in rural areas," said Jamil Ahmed Awan, head of operations for the UK-based charity Islamic Relief.

"Everyone was focusing on camps and on sanitation facilities, but now Islamic Relief is planning to focus on water supply schemes in rural areas," Awan said, acknowledging the problem.

He pointed out that lack of access to rural areas has so far impeded efforts to restore water facilities.

"Many roads are still blocked, like [those] into the Neelum and Lipa valleys. As the army clears the roads we are able to get to areas to assess water supplies," he said.

Islamic Relief intends to mend cracked pipes and tanks, and to provide sanitation facilities, along with health and hygiene awareness, in several areas across the earthquake-affected region.

The task of collecting water is given to women and children who spend many hours a day trekking between their villages and water sources. Since the earthquake, children like 10-year-old Zahida are forced to work to help struggling families.

"We're concerned about children being taken out of school to collect water," says Rosie Jackson, livelihoods project manager with UK-based charity Save the Children.

"All the assessments in Bagh and Muzaffarabad, whether on child protection or livelihoods, were screaming water. That's the number one priority at the moment in the rural areas," said Jackson.

Mountain guides working for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) report that scores of villages in the Neelum Valley are also without an accessible water source.

"Everyone is telling us they need water," says Atta Ullah, a mountain guide who has been conducting an assessment in the Neelum Valley.

"Small girls are walking up very steep mountains to collect water. Some of them are walking over 3 km per trip and it's very dangerous," he observed.

Lack of water is also having an adverse affect on the livelihoods of survivors.

"Women are saying they don't have water to grow their vegetables," says Jackson. "And as it gets warmer, people will need more water," she warns.

Survivors in rural areas depend on livestock and agriculture. More than a third of livestock was killed by the earthquake and Jackson said that survivors were now struggling to meet the food and water needs of the remaining precious animals.

A major issue for the government is the return of villagers who moved to towns following the earthquake. The government is advising displaced survivors to return to their villages by 31 March, but rural survivors living in camps say that until essential services and resources are available to them in their villages and hamlets, they will not go back.

"What have I got left to go back to? There is no school, no doctor and no water," says Roxanna, a survivor who moved her family from her village to a tented camp in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, just after the quake.

Some aid agencies say that restoring the water system is vital for the return of displaced survivors.

"If there is no water supply in a village, this could be a major factor in the decision-making process of returning," said Shafeeq-ur-Rehman, Programme Coordinator for Oxfam.

Oxfam is working to rehabilitate water supplies in 50 villages in Muzaffarabad and Bagh districts and will extend the programme to another 50.

"We're involving rural communities and this is important as we are paying them a daily labour wage and we're involving them so they feel ownership over the water schemes," says Rehman.

"This way they can take the scheme further themselves, in terms of repair and maintenance once we are gone," he noted.

The UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) is the lead agency for water and sanitation in northern Pakistan and together with other aid agencies is compiling a water and sanitation strategy for the transition period from relief to recovery, scheduled from April 2006 to April 2007.

"We are planning to cover pretty much 100 percent of communities in earthquake-affected areas," said Julian Parker, water and sanitation team leader for UNICEF.

"That means we aim to restore water supplies to communities that had them before," he added.

[ENDS]