OCHA Situation Report No. 34
South Asia - Earthquake
27 January 2006


Pakistan

Regular breaks in the winter weather have allowed the UN and 
humanitarian agencies to step up deliveries of assistance to 
earthquake-affected populations.  Twenty-seven UNHAS relief helicopters 
have been operational, delivering aid and deploying rapid response 
relief teams to high altitude and low-lying areas. The usual 
distribution of food, tents and blankets, and other non-food items, 
(NFIs) continued throughout the week, with particular attention to the 
delivery of warm clothes for children, as temperatures continued to 
drop.

Although a sense of cautious optimism has been observed about the relief 
operations in the affected areas, the priorities of the humanitarian 
community remain unchanged for this reporting period: (i) Keeping the 
survivors warm; (ii) winterizing tents and providing corrugated 
galvanized iron (CGI) sheets; (iii) providing heating in family/communal 
tents, in school tents and hospitals while at the same time ensuring 
that safety measures are in place; and (iv) improving the sanitation 
conditions in the camps.

SITUATION OVERVIEW:

Preparations for worsening weather conditions:

Preparations are underway to face the anticipated worsening of the 
weather over the next few days. Priority is being given to the 
winterization of tents, heating of communal and individual tents, 
distribution of warm clothes to children and other activities to prevent 
outbreaks of disease in the aftermath of the bad weather.

Specific needs of 'Under-50 Tent' camps:

Addressing the needs of spontaneous camps of less than 50 tents (under 
50-tent camps) remains an urgent priority.  In NWFP and PAK, the 
emergency shelter and camp management clusters are working closely to 
identify the particular needs of earthquake survivors in these camps. In 
Muzaffarabad, a rapid assessment is underway to address the immediate 
needs in these camps, and so far about 40 such camps have been 
identified. The preliminary findings are that the humanitarian needs are 
not sufficiently covered and the assistance provided to date has been on 
an ad-hoc basis. The most urgent needs identified are: winterisation of 
tents, blankets, tarpaulin/plastic sheets, and food. The camps are not 
well organized and mostly without management, with many of the residents 
coming from the Muzaffarabad area.  Three NGOs will look into providing 
assistance to the 40 camps.

A similar assessment of 'under 50-tent' camps is ongoing in 540 known 
sites in Mansehra involving 23 assessment teams. The results of the 
assessment, which is planned to end on 29 January, will be released by 4 
February.

Potential return of affected population:

Planning by the Emergency Shelter Cluster (ESC) for 'transitional 
shelter and return' is accelerating. The Cluster's Strategic Planning 
Group is working closely with the Camp Management, Livelihoods, Housing, 
and Early Recovery clusters, to prepare for a UNDP-ERRA workshop on the 
subject, scheduled for 8-9 February. Existing Cluster arrangements are 
expected to 'merge and morph' under the guidance of the new Transition 
Coordinator during the intervening period.

Although the return and repatriation of displaced populations should 
happen on a voluntary basis, there is an increasing concern that in 
order to avoid the bottleneck of combining the rural and urban 
population in the complex setting of city rebuilding, the rural 
population may have to return to their villages. The "high altitude 
teams" are involved with the identification of the emergency shelter 
requirements and will include a "returns" component in this programme.

There is talk amongst the population of returning to their homes in the 
higher altitudes in the near future (mid-February to end of February) 
and for the first time, field monitors (IOM) in Muzaffarabad reported 
that some people are returning to the mountain areas ? but on a very 
small scale. For instance, in Danna town (Maciyiara Union Council), 
around 6,900ft of altitude and with 4ft of snow, 25 families returned 
during the reporting week. The pull-factors have been the distribution 
of NFIs for construction and the good weather. A larger scale return can 
be expected in the coming weeks if the good weather conditions continue.

In Battagram, the planning assumption by PAKMIL and the local 
authorities is that most people will return to their places of origin in 
early March. The camp management cluster is currently undertaking 
surveys to get a clearer picture of how many people will return and to 
what locations. The humanitarian community together with the GoP (PAKMIL 
and District Commissioner) will work closer to ensure that there is a 
coherent approach towards supporting the voluntary return process.

The people of the Allai valley reportedly refer to 15 February as the 
date the movement from valleys back to the high villages would begin as 
the weather is expected to improve by then. The same date was mentioned 
by the mayor of Muzaffarabad as the time when the urban population will 
move from Islamabad and surrounding areas back to regional centres such 
as Muzaffarabad.

Concerns on compensation policy:

The humanitarian community continues to express concern about the 
compensation policy for housing reconstruction of one fixed compensation 
package, regardless of the size of the house and the number of people 
that used to live there. In addition to that, the needs of vulnerable 
groups, such as widows and orphans, must be specifically addressed.

Transfer of responsibilities from military to civil authorities:

As the PAKMIL begins to scale down operations and transfer 
responsibilities to the civil authorities, more has to be done to 
increase the resources and capacity of the civil authorities in order to 
fulfill the transitional agreements and commitments.

Improved information management:

The Strategic Information Cell (SIC) established between the HIC, IOM, 
Shelter Cluster, FRC and UNJLC has been operating in a virtual manner 
since 15 December 2005. Its success has provided the impetus for an 
expanded "cross-Cluster" data exchange cell to improve the information 
management process and encourage greater data sharing. The first 
workshop took place on 24 January and involved representatives of all 
the Clusters and OCHA.

Distribution of relief items:

Distribution of emergency shelter materials are in the final phase, with 
inputs expected to peak in mid-February and finish by early March. 
Pipeline analysis shows a surge of non-food items reaching 
beneficiaries. Nonetheless, and as expected, poor weather conditions and 
related road-closures due to landslides have hampered distribution 
efforts to the more remote areas by road and air. Outstanding needs for 
winterization kits (including plastic sheets, ropes, and blankets), 
stoves for heating, and shelter repair kits remain, particularly in 
Rawalakot, North-West Allai valley, Shangla, and Khala Dhaka. The 
Emergency Shelter Cluster is requesting approximately 25 helicopter 
sorties per day (circa.50 metric tons) until mid-February to supplement 
distributions to medium and high elevations by road. Ad-hoc aerial 
distributions are required until end of April as pointed out by the high 
altitude assessment and monitoring teams.

WFP and FAO plan to provide seeds and chemical fertilizer for returnees 
to bring back to their respective villages. The recent rain and the 
landslides have however slowed down the movement of people, and may 
potentially affect the land use systems.

Training for relief workers:

In Bagh, the Norwegian Alpine Support Team conducted training on winter 
skills for about 20 participants from the humanitarian community on 22 
January. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) started two-day basic Camp 
Management training courses in Urdu on 26 January. The target group 
comprises national staff from national and international NGOs, UN 
organizations, the Pakistani Government as well as from the Army or 
private initiatives involved in camp management or assistance.

CLUSTER UPDATES

EMERGENCY SHELTER

1. The delivery of tents to date is reported as follows: FRC - 866,304 
tents, of which the Emergency Shelter Cluster (ESC) reports deliveries 
of 472,842.

2. 388,245 temporary shelters have been constructed to date of which 
247,176 by PAKMIL.

3. 3.1 million CGI sheets have been distributed out of a total of 4.8 
million projected to have been distributed by mid-February.

4. The equivalent of 6.1 million blankets is expected to have been 
distributed by mid-February. This figure includes the 3.2 million 
blankets confirmed in the pipeline and those already distributed.

5. In Bagh, the "flying carpenters" scheme, which enables all NGOs to 
identify vulnerable families in need of technical assistance to improve 
and/or build adequate temporary shelter, was initiated by the ESC on 25 
January. ARC, sponsored by 'People in Need', have several teams, who, 
upon directions by IOM as coordinating body, will build warm shelter 
from salvaged materials. UNOPS is also helping to identify vulnerable 
families with such needs and living in hard-to-reach areas.

CAMP MANAGEMENT

1. The camp management cluster is well into its second phase of 
operations: delivering heating (stoves) and fuel (300,000 litres of 
kerosene so far distributed), and promoting awareness to deal with the 
event of fires in tents (fire extinguishers, fire points). The overall 
situation today can be described as stable although the challenges ? 
overcrowding, health and fire hazards, sanitation conditions and trying 
to convince populations in the poorly run camps to move into better 
organised ones ? do remain.

2. In Bagh, the population in the first planned camp, Namanpura, has 
increased and reached a total number of 119 families (654 individuals) 
as of 25 January. Efforts are being made to increase the capacity of the 
camp from 250 to 300-350 families. Most of the new arrivals are people 
who have been relocated from two of the spontaneous camps.

3. The distribution of fire-fighting equipment to the spontaneous camps 
is completed, with the distribution of heaters and kerosene continuing. 
The main constraints with the third site identified for a planned camp, 
Mang Salia, are landownership and access. It was reported by UNHCR that 
residents in one of the spontaneous camps (Dhulli) have returned to 
their villages after having received compensation to rebuild their 
houses.

4. 'World Vision' in Mansehra has offered to provide more than 5,600 
stoves for family tents. The stoves adhere to the governmental 
requirement of having "no naked flame". Distribution of the stoves is to 
be accompanied by a fire safety equipment and education programme. UNHCR 
will provide kerosene for stoves until the end of March 2006.

5. In Mansehra, insufficient drainage of the camps continues to create 
problems. Digging deep is a solution whereas provision of gravel of 
paved drains is problematic as this may destroy lands used for farming 
purposes.

6. No significant population movements were noted during the reporting 
period. As of 25 January, the camp population in Batagram is as follows: 
15,915 (Meira), 2,995 (Batagram I/Maidan) 3,000 (Batera), 507 (Kund) 360 
(Khatai) and 280 (Pak-China/Banian).

WATER AND SANITATION

1. In Muzaffarabad, the water supply operation in camps has improved 
following the return of tanker drivers after the Eid holidays and the 
addition of tanker vehicles. The sanitation work in camps has been 
intensified to complete the planned latrines and to replace the 
filled-up ones as well.

2. A watsan and hygiene survey of the spontaneous camps in Bagh has been 
conducted by UNICEF and WHO, and the findings in spontaneous camps 
indicate that, whilst latrines appear to be reasonable, water 
consumption is below SPHERE standards for most people and efforts to 
promote hand washing need to be intensified. The survey showed that 
household water consumptions (quantity) and hygiene practices are the 
issues of greatest concern at this time.

3. In Mansehra, 15 prospective master trainers attended a two-day 
Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) workshop 
from 20-21 January. The following items were distributed to local 
partners: bars of soap (31,600), water jerry cans (4,000), tarpaulin 
rolls (50), aqua tablets (10,000) and 42 packs of PUR sachets.

4. 58,696 IDPs are being provided with clean drinking water out of a 
total population of 74,489 in camps in Mansehra. UNICEF's contribution 
to the coverage is 49,912 (85%) through its partners.

5. Camps are getting 55% latrine coverage by the WES cluster.

6. In Mansehra area, 113,571 individuals are receiving water (of which 
UNICEF covers 49%).

7. The number of affected people with access to safe drinking water 
amounts to 52% coverage (418,990 against the 'Winter Plan' figure of 
810,000), and the total number of people having access to sanitary 
facilities amounts to 78% coverage (214,060 against the 'Winter Plan' 
target of 275,000).

FOOD AND NUTRITION

1. WFP reports that food has been distributed to 995,000 out of its 
995,000 ? 1 million caseload assigned by the GoP. This figure does not 
include the 110,000 children in tented schools receiving a supplementary 
ration of high-energy biscuits (HEB) and dates, nor does it include the 
4,000 people in tented hospitals receiving full rations. The deliveries 
from the hubs to extended delivery points from 17-24 January amount to 
3,405.21 MT, out of which 1,034 MT were delivered by air.

2. In Mansehra, WFP has agreed to conduct a stopgap distribution to an 
additional 16,239 people, totalling its distribution to 84,879 people. 
Out of these 16,239 people, 5,225 live in camps of less than 50 tents, 
and others in plus '50 tent' camps. In February, WFP plans to return to 
its normal distribution quota of 69,000 people.

3. Distributions in camps in Mansehra and Abbotabad were completed by 25 
January and have also been finalized in camps in Balakot.

HEALTH

1. The main sicknesses for medical consultations are acute respiratory 
infections (ARI ? 70%), acute watery diarrhoea (AWD ? 7%), fever (6%) 
and injuries (5%). The polio campaign was initiated on 23 January in all 
the earthquake-affected areas, with WHO and UNICEF supporting the 
Ministry of Health (MoH) through vaccines, social mobilization and human 
resources.

2. WHO initiated a tent-to-tent survey in Maidan camp in Battagram for 
data on health and indoor pollution. This tent-to-tent approach may be a 
way of identifying female patients who are reluctant to visit the health 
centres because of cultural and traditional norms. As previously 
reported, MoH continues its urgent search for additional female staff 
since the lack of female health workers remains a major concern.

3. In Battagram, the Malaysian Military Field Hospital finally departed, 
leaving behind materials and equipment worth US$ 100,000 for the 
Battagram District. WHO mental health teams have been deployed 
throughout the Battagram district to support the work of already active 
mental health teams. Female health workers have received training in 
camp surveys and have since carried out a complete camp survey in Maidan 
Camp.

EDUCATION

1. Of the 400,000 primary school level children in the affected areas, 
48,115 children have been enrolled in 453 schools with support from 
agencies.

2. To date, 1,700 tents locally procured by UNICEF have been delivered 
to the field. The target is to have all tents in place by March 2006. 
The tents were procured locally, so that they could be delivered as 
quickly as possible whilst waiting for the 6,500 extra tents ordered 
from China.

3. The Directorate of Curriculum and Teacher Education (DCTE) in NWFP is 
working on the final refinement of the manual for the training of 
trainers which is expected to begin early February.

4. The Education Department in Mansehra has developed a plan for the 
relief operation and transition to the next phase. The department has 
raised the issue of lack of female teachers as well as lack of school 
facilities for girls (2,600 sites are identified to be without schools 
for girls).

PROTECTION

1. Psycho-social support has been provided to 1,700 children through 
child-friendly spaces in Bagh, and to 954 women and children in 
Muzaffarabad, 290 women and children in Battagram and 12,100 women and 
children in Mansehra through child-/women-friendly spaces and community 
groups.

2. In Mansehra, heating is needed in child-friendly spaces in order to 
prevent more children from dropping out.

3. Further distribution of winterized kits (including caps, winter 
boots, girl shawls, jackets, and socks) and blankets is ongoing in 
high-altitude areas and most-affected areas throughout Bagh District as 
well as in Rawalkot District through Social Welfare Department.

LOGISTICS

1. From the start of the air operations, UNHAS has airlifted 10,645 MT 
of food items, 2,423 MT non-food items and 19,981 passengers. 27 UNHAS 
helicopters are operational and flying during the good weather.

2. The U.S. military is currently moving 150 metric tons a day in 
sling-load operations out of Chatterplain and Muzaffarabad. They hope to 
increase this amount in the coming days.

3. WFP moves approximately 60% of relief supplies by road and 40% by 
air. Consolidated figures for the operation as a whole are not yet 
available. However, WFP's percentages are believed to be fairly 
representative.

4. In Battagram, the Logistics Cluster is looking into the possibilities 
of establishing additional warehouses and rub halls. Many of the rub 
halls have turned into overcrowded permanent storage spaces instead of 
being a transit place for relief items. Relief items are arriving at a 
faster pace than can be delivered. There is an increasing sense of 
oversupply, with some beneficiaries beginning to decline the provisions 
of more NFIs because they have already been sufficiently supplied. 
However, pockets of urgent needs remain in some parts of the affected 
area.

WEATHER AND ACCESSIBILTY:

1. There was no reported rain/snow fall in the reporting period and 
almost all roads remained open. However, some accessibility problems 
caused by last week's bad weather remain. In Mansehra, a bridge is out 
at Ghanol north east of Balakot. The Khagan Valley road is inaccessible 
past this point and will likely remain so for a minimum of three to five 
weeks. Other forms of cargo transport will have to be envisaged for this 
area.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. All detailed cluster information (meeting minutes, assessments, 
contact information etc.) is being posted on www.un.org.pk .

2. The latest information on projects and funding for the Flash Appeal, 
and for the emergency overall, can be found on the Financial Tracking 
Service

(http://ocha.unog.ch/fts/reports/reportlist.asp?section=CE&record_ID=688).Further
  information on earthquake appeals and funding is available on ReliefWeb

(http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc105?OpenForm&rc=3&emid=EQ-2005-000174-PAK).


3. Contact details of focal points for information on in-kind and cash 
contributions can be found at http://www.un.org.pk/earthquake05/ .

4. OCHA will revert with further information as it becomes available. 
This situation report, together with further information on ongoing 
emergencies, is also available on the OCHA Internet Website at 
http://www.reliefweb.int.

Tel.:  +41-22-917 12 34
Fax: +41-22-917 00 23
E-mail: ochagva@un.org

In case of emergency only: Tel. +41-22-917 20 10

Desk Officers:
  Ms. Merete Johansson, direct Tel. +41-22-9171694
  Mr. Guido Galli, direct Tel. +41-22-9173171
  Mr. Christophe Schmachtel, direct Tel.  +41-22-9171751

Press contact:
  GVA - Ms. Elizabeth Byrs, direct Tel. +41-22-917 2653
  NYC - Ms. Stephanie Bunker, direct Tel. + 1-917 367 5126


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