OCHA Situation Report
South Asia Earthquake
Logistics Bottlenecks as of 2 December 2005
7 December 2005


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The major bottleneck for the relief effort will remain the weather 
conditions hampering delivery of food, shelter materials and other 
relief items. Lack of adequate shelter material remains a bottleneck as 
well. Bottlenecks:

Weather

Outlook for a harsh winter: snowfall is expected to exceed considerably 
above the normal range both in terms of frequency of occurrence and 
amount. Temperatures are likely to range well below normal. In December, 
January and February, even the day temperatures are likely to stay 
several degrees below freezing point especially in the mountains. During 
January lowest minimum temperatures usually come to -20s degree Celsius. 
Landslides and foggy weather are likely to prevail.

Security

Police escort for all international staff is still required in Batagram 
district, NWFP. UNDSS will assess Chatterplan and surrounding areas 2nd 
of December.

The NGO GOAL has experienced delays importing CGI (Corrugated Galvanized 
Iron) sheeting of Indian origin through Karachi. This was due to 
protection of the local industry, which is currently not able to fulfil 
demands.

UNJLC is working on obtaining a general waiver for CGI sheeting.

Developments:

Helicopters

The overall number of helicopters has been reduced by six in 1,5 weeks 
time. The three British Chinooks tasked by UNHAS have left, but 
agreement has been reached that in case of spare capacity up to four 
Chinooks provided by the U.S. can be tasked with UNHAS/UNJLC cargo 
requests. Three helicopters provided by the Japanese have left as well. 
Garhi Habibullah will become an air forward operation base in addition 
to Abbotabad, Muzzafarabad and Chatterplan.

|---------------------------------+----------|
| UNHAS tasked assets             |  19 (-3) |
|---------------------------------+----------|
| Government of Pakistan assets   |  36      |
|---------------------------------+----------|
| Foreign Gov./Military assets in |  32 (-2) |
| support of Gov. of Pakistan     |          |
|---------------------------------+----------|
| NGO operated assets             |  13 (-1) |
|---------------------------------+----------|
| Total:                          | 100 (-6) |
|---------------------------------+----------|



Road Access

UNJLC and various partners are developing a comprehensive road map, 
which will be updated regularly. The Federal Relief Commission (FRC) 
reports that 95% of roads in the affected areas have been cleared. 
However, continuing seismic activity and heavy rains provoke landslides 
that cause temporary blockages. Furthermore, the FRC reports that 75% of 
water supply and 70% of electricity supply have been restored. 
Telecommunications are reported to be 96% restored.

NATO mission

The Government of Pakistan announced 1st of December that no extension 
is needed for NATO's 90-day mission for the earthquake relief effort. 
The mission is planned to end in January. Nevertheless, today, 2nd of 
December, a team of Italian engineers will arrive at Chaklala airbase to 
support the NATO mission and the commercial side of the NATO airbridge 
is still being continued.

Shelter Survey

The Emergency Shelter Cluster is carrying out a 'Shelter Security' 
survey to determine whether people are well supplied with winterised 
shelter, food, blankets and stoves. Only the population living below 
5,000 ft. will be taken into account. Teams will conduct a 
village-by-village assessment. Results are expected the 8th of December.

Warehousing

The storage capacity at Muzaffarabad airport has increased to an overall 
total of 1550 MT. Ghari Dopatta is being assessed as a possible 
warehousing area in the Jhelum Valley. It could be used to reduce the 
need for additional storage in Muzaffarabad itself and to pre-position 
supplies in case road access becomes restricted.

Possible future bottlenecks:

Population Movement

No mass population movement has been reported so far. However, the 
government of North West Frontier Province and authorities of 
Pakistan-administered Kashmir expect respectively 100,000 to 200,000 and 
30,000 more people might come down from the upper valleys.

This Logistics Bottlenecks report is a joint product of UNJLC and OCHA. 
For queries or comments please contact Ingrid van Beuzekom 
(vanbeuzekom@un.org ). Sources used are: contact with UNJLC staff, 
ReliefWeb, minutes from cluster meetings, Pakistan Meteorological 
Department, press briefings.


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