30-Nov-2005

A series of massive earthquakes and landslides have destroyed many parts of Northern Pakistan. The impact of the damage is most visible around Balakot, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, and Batagram. Remote areas in the Kaghan, Siran, Allai, Neelam and Jehlum Valleys have been most affected. The official death toll is above 74,000 dead and more than half of which are children. The death toll is expected to rise higher as there are still several areas, which are cut off and hard to reach on ground. The onset of winter has begun to unfold a disaster within a disaster as many of the very young, old and weak have begun to succumb to exposure to cold icy winds, snow and pneumonia. There are more than 70,000 injured many of whom are still languishing in hospitals or in make shift rehabilitation homes and tented villages. There are more than 3.3 Million people in N.W. Frontier Province and Kashmir, who are homeless, internally displaced or living under very difficult and harsh conditions. The first snows of the season have already fallen.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO SAVE LIVES !!

The need for non-tented, snow tolerant shelters, winterised tents, blankets, warm clothing, cooking and heating stoves, basic food provisions are essential with the onset of winter. The immediate provision of these basic relief and rehabilitation goods are required to give a chance to the people of the earthquake affected area to survive from the harsh Himalayan winter.

In the immediate phase of the relief operations, helicopters evacuated most of the surgical trauma patients to tertiary hospitals in the main cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Abbotabad. However, now cases of pneumonia and other infectious diseases are on the rise especially in children, the elderly and women. There is a shortage of female doctors working in the earthquake-affected areas. Due to cultural barriers, female patients are reluctant to be attended by the male doctors. As a consequence, female patients are suffering the most in isolated communities. The breakdown of water supplies, unreliable road links and poor living conditions secondary to the earthquake has given rise to an alarmingly high incidence of impetigo, scabies, etc. primarily due to poor basic hygiene.

Immediate steps also need to be taken to try and bring some "normalcy" to people's lives and reduce their dependency on outside help. The self-repair or self-rebuilding of shelters, the re-opening of schools (albeit in a large tent for now), land road routes, shops, local water mills, etc. all need to be facilitated in every possible manner.

In most of rural areas of the earthquake-affected zones, redevelopment and rehabilitation work will commence in earnest in spring (March) 2006. The harsh winter conditions on ground do not allow the locals to work during this difficult period. Nevertheless, detailed planning and coordination on the efforts required for the massive rehabilitation and redevelopment task ahead needs to continue.