IRIN
PAKISTAN: Battling the weather in quake zone
13 January 2006


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

ISLAMABAD, 13 January (IRIN) - With another cold spell due in northern 
Pakistan, according to meteorologists, aid agencies continue to struggle 
to better equip thousands of survivors against inclement weather by 
providing winterised tents, distributing heaters and relocating people 
to improved tenting.

"As storm clouds loom over northern Pakistan's quake zone, the UN 
refugee agency [UNHCR] has intensified its winterisation drive in relief 
camps - with additional supplies of warm clothing, blankets and plastic 
sheets for insulation and waterproofing and by setting up communal 
heating tents wherever possible," Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the 
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said 
in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

"In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where there is not enough space for 
communal tents, we'll start distributing stoves to individual tents in 
the Jhelum Valley this weekend after a delay caused by the three-day Eid 
holiday for local offices and NGO partners," she added.

Heavy rains and snowfall across the quake-hit region during the first 
week of January severely hampered the helicopter-dependent relief 
operation, by grounding flights and cutting off crucial supply roads for 
about a week.

More than 80,000 people were killed when the 8 October 7.6 magnitude 
quake ripped through the region, rendering over 3.5 million homeless in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir and parts of the North West Frontier 
Province (NWFP).

However, three months on, nearly 2 million quake survivors were still 
living in tents below the snowline, about 250,000 are in organised camps 
and another 400,000 were living in temporary shelters constructed at 
higher altitude, according to Jan Vandemootele, the UN's Humanitarian 
Coordinator in Pakistan.

With the onset of severe cold conditions, a significant increase in 
cold-related diseases has been recorded in the quake-hit areas, 
according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) 
covering the period 31 December to 6 January.

At the same time, agencies are preparing to shelter thousands of new 
arrivals still living at high altitudes if temperatures continue to 
drop. "One such camp in the Bagh district of Pakistani-administered 
Kashmir has so far received 50 families while another camp in NWFP is 
near completion and will be ready to receive new arrivals over this 
weekend," Tan said.

But the weather is continuing to take its toll on the relief effort. 
Tons of emergency shelter material for the remote valleys of NWFP are 
unable to get through due to landslides and avalanches blocking roads, 
according to International Organization for Migration (IOM).

"IOM has tried twice since 8 January to send nine trucks to the Bana [in 
NWFP] distribution point from the Karakorum Highway (KKH) but each time, 
the trucks were forced to return without delivering their expected 
payload," said an IOM press release on Friday.

The agency will try and deliver the materials - critical to allow 
survivors to construct weather-proof shelters - by 4x4 jeeps with snow 
chains when the vehicles are available.


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