OCHA Situation Report
South Asia: Earthquake
Logistics Bottlenecks as of 22 January 2006


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Current Issues:
Road access

The majority of main roads leading into the valleys are still cut off by 
land, mud and snow slides. UNJLC road condition reports are still 
available on a daily basis on www.unjlc.org. Road access to the Khagan 
Valley is completely cut off as a bridge at Ghanol (15 km North East of 
Balakot) is out. This means this area can currently only be supplied by 
air. However, the Pakistani Military have stated that this will be fixed 
in 7 to 10 days. (Logistics Cluster Meeting, 19.01.06; UNJLC Islamabad, 
22.01.06)

Muzaffarabad

The road between Muzaffarabad city and the airport was damaged due to 
landslides, but has been opened again. (UNJLC Islamabad; Logistics 
Cluster Meeting, 19.01.06)

CGI sheeting

Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) sheeting needs to be packed well in 
order to allow for efficient cargo transport. (Logistics Cluster 
Meeting, 19.01.06)

Developments:

NATO air bridge

The NATO air bridge will stop functioning with the NATO mission ending 
1st of February. NATO will try to finish all pending cargo movement 
requests by the end of January. New requests are no longer accepted. 
(Logistics Cluster Meeting, 19.01.06; UNJLC Bulletin 30)

Helicopter Overview

There are no major changes in air operations capacity. One of the German 
CH-53s tasked by UNHAS has left in accordance with the withdrawal of 
NATO; two additional Mi-8s have been brought in will become operational 
shortly. Negotiations on keeping two of the German CH-53s in country 
until the end of March are still ongoing.


Helicopters in-country as at 18th of January 2005

|-----------------------------+----------|
| Operator                    | Quantity |
|-----------------------------+----------|
| UNHAS                       |       22 |
|-----------------------------+----------|
| Government of Pakistan      |       36 |
|-----------------------------+----------|
| Foreign Gov./Military in    |       17 |
| support of Gov. of Pakistan |          |
|-----------------------------+----------|
| Various NGOs                |       15 |
|-----------------------------+----------|
| Total:                      |       90 |
|-----------------------------+----------|


Road access long-term

It is expected that it will take several months beyond April to clear 
main arterial roads for 4X4 traffic only. Up to five years are needed to 
clear roads completely, to stabilize and reinforce slopes, and to repair 
bridges. Further damage from landslides should be expected in 
March/April due to the soil becoming waterlogged by snowmelt and 
rainfalls. (OCHA Situation report 33; WFP Operational Update, 17.01.06)

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 and sitreps, Pakistan 
Meteorological Department, press briefings.


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