IRIN
PAKISTAN: Emergency relief still needed in Balochistan and northern areas
10 March 2005


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

ISLAMABAD, 10 March (IRIN) - About 100,000 people are still stranded 
with limited food supplies in the remote northern valleys of Pakistan's 
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) following weeks of widespread 
torrential rains, snowfall, landslides, avalanches and flooding.

"Relief supplies of food and medicine from various national and 
international agencies have started reaching some of the snowbound 
areas. However, generally there is a severe shortage of edible items as 
the small roads have been closed in many districts for over a month now 
and local authorities lack bulldozers to clear the roads," World Health 
Organization (WHO) emergency medical officer Dr Quaid Saeed told IRIN 
from the town of Swat, some 250 km north of the Pakistani capital 
Islamabad.

More than 24,000 houses are reported destroyed and over 65,000 have been 
badly damaged across the northern districts of the province, according 
to provincial relief authorities.

But getting to affected communities in upland districts of Upper Dir, 
Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Battagram and Mansehra is proving difficult due 
to continuing bad weather. The WHO has planned to set up six disease 
surveillance centres in the Swat district to get weekly updates about 
health conditions in the area.

In the southwestern province of Balochistan, at least 130 people have 
been confirmed dead since the harsh weather started in January, while 
scores have been reported injured, according to provincial relief 
authorities there. In addition, heavy rains have caused huge damage to 
communication networks, houses, livestock and agriculture across the 
province, the poorest in Pakistan.

"The relief operation is going on, though at a slower pace. The roads in 
many parts of the northern zone are still closed due to landslides and 
increased water flow as the rains are continuing and causing huge damage 
to houses, particularly those made of mud," Raziq Bugti, head provincial 
relief activities, told IRIN from the provincial capital Quetta.

Torrential rains and flash flooding over past two weeks have left 
thousands of people homeless in the southern coastal districts of 
Gawadar, Kech, Chagai, Noshki, Panjgoor and Awaran, and in Qilla 
Abdullah, Qillah Saifullah, Pishin and Zhob in the northern part of the 
province.

"Makeshift arrangements have been made to house people in public 
buildings and provide tents and blankets to those living outside. 
However, many in several remote areas are still struggling with a 
shortages of tents, blankets and food supplies in the far-flung areas of 
the province," Bugti said. Many of the villages in the coastal belt have 
been flooded due to overflowing reservoirs, which were built close to 
villages by local people to provide irrigation water.

In Balochistan, nearly half a million people were badly affected by 
heavy rains and floods in the earlier weeks of February, with an 
estimated 4,000 families being left homeless in the southern coastal 
belt.

Meanwhile, hundreds of coal workers have been reported trapped in the 
remote Sor-range coalfield, some 20 km southeast of Quetta. The miners 
working there are largely migrants either from NWFP or Afghanistan, 
labouring in very poor conditions. "In bad weather, the [Sor-range] 
mines are closed and now the roads are not traffic-worthy to shift the 
workers to other places," the relief official said.

Less intense rains are forecast to continue at regular intervals during 
the rest of March in the northern areas of Balochistan, NWFP, Punjab and 
Pakistan-administered Kashmir. [ENDS]


IRIN-CEA
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005

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