IRIN
PAKISTAN: Registration of quake-affected people to start
28 December 2005


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

ISLAMABAD, 28 December (IRIN) - Together with the Pakistani authorities, 
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 
will soon launch a household-level registration exercise to record the 
profiles of quake-hit displaced families housed in tented camps across 
northern parts of quake-hit Pakistan.

"This camp registration aims to record their total numbers and their 
vulnerability. The deduced information will also serve in planning for 
the early recovery phrase," Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's emergency 
coordinator for earthquake relief said in the Pakistani capital, 
Islamabad.

More than 80,000 people were killed and over 100,000 were injured after 
a 7.6-magnitude quake ripped through Pakistan's North West Frontier 
Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 8 October, 
rendering over 3.5 million people homeless.

Additionally, an estimated 2.3 million people are in need of food 
support throughout the harsh Himalayan winter.

According to the Federal Relief Commission in the capital Islamabad, 
altogether some 55 tented-villages/camps have been established, housing 
over 58,000 quake-affected people in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. 
Some 20 tent-schools have also been functioning in the camps, employing 
nearly 90 teachers and enrolling over 1,100 students.

Likewise, another 23 tent villages have been established in NWFP, which 
has a population of over 35,000 quake survivors. Some 20 schools are now 
being run in the province, enrolling more than 3,000 students and 
employing almost 100 teachers.

The UN refugee agency is providing material and technical support to the 
Pakistani authorities and local NGOs in more than 37 planned camps in 
the area. The agency is now focusing and extending support to about 400 
spontaneous camps, groupings of less than 50 tents, scattered across the 
extended 30,000 sq km quake-region, covering eight districts with three 
in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and another five in NWFP.

A pilot registration of the effort has already begun in NWFP's Mansehra 
district, Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman said in Islamabad. "It 
involves the recording of very basic information like the number of 
family members, their age, gender, information about heads of households 
and their obvious vulnerabilities in order to address their 
rehabilitation needs," she said.

Meanwhile, relief agencies are increasingly concerned over social unrest 
in these transitional shelters, noted in a report by the emergency 
shelter cluster's lead agency, the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM).

As the winter sets in, exacerbated by close-proximity, cultural 
differences, difficulties in cooking and sanitation arrangements, 
absence of income-generating opportunities, inadequate shelter security, 
and boredom, social unrest in these collective camps/settlements is 
likely to increase, said IOM's latest situation report.

In planned camps, however, the IOM report noted that literacy classes 
and other outreach activities were being introduced as a mitigation 
effort, and to begin the process of sensitising populations about the 
next steps to recovery by the spring.

Temperatures in mountain villages have plummetted to minus 10 degrees 
Celsius at night, with fire-safety now becoming a major concern.

According to the IOM, over 1.9 million people are estimated to be living 
in 300,000 tents across the earthquake-affected areas. About two-thirds 
of the families have constructed home-build stoves within the tent for 
cooking and heating, while the remainder use open fires.

"Naked flame poses a considerable fire hazard. Already, some 50 tent 
fires have been recorded with consequent loss of life and destruction of 
all family assets," the IOM report reported.


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