Key aid crossing point to be upgraded

Problems at the newly-opened crossing of Nigny Piandzh in Tajikistan - an important transit point for food aid into northern Afghanistan - would soon be resolved, a UN official told IRIN on Wednesday. "Heavy rain over the past few days has made the road very muddy," UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Tajikistan, Mathew Kahane said. He added that a convoy of trucks had been able to pass through the crossing over the weekend but had made the road even muddier. "The minor problems being encountered now reflect the fact that the port has been out of use for some years," he explained. Problems at the crossing came to light following a joint UN and Tajik government assessment of the area. "We wanted to look at the physical state of facilities at the crossing," Kahane said. The crossing is essential for aid agencies to transport supplies to the northern Afghan areas of Konduz and Taloqan from Tajikistan. "The supplies are available here and it is important to get them trucked across to the displaced and vulnerable as soon as possible," he added. While the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) managed to send 437 mt of aid there over the weekend to feed approximately 51,000 people, many in Konduz had not received any food since US-led strikes began, due to insecurity in the area. Now there are fears that the new flow of assistance could be too late with some 176 deaths reported in camps housing the displaced. Kahane said that a contract between WFP and the road department had been signed in order to get the road repaired over the next few days and that a bulldozer was already clearing the way to prevent any delays in deliveries to northern Afghanistan. "We want to bring the surface up to a useable condition," he explained, saying that some 500 metres of the road needed "substantial upgrading". The crossing between Tajikistan and Afghanistan is approximately 450 metres. Meanwhile, the British aid agency, Merlin, the first NGO to use the crossing, sent a team of aid workers to Taloqan and Konduz to start offering primary health care services to displaced and vulnerable Afghans. "We have established an office in Taloqan and we are distributing emergency health kits," spokesman for Merlin in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Paul Handley told IRIN. The NGO would also be supporting the rehabilitation of clinics in the north destroyed during recent fighting. Handley said that their two major concerns were respiratory infections and a possible measles outbreak. Child health and nutrition had been identified as priority areas, he added. In addition to its work in northern Afghanistan, Merlin has been helping some 10,000 Afghan refugees stuck on islands in the river Pyandzh on the Tajik/Afghan border for over a year. Handley said that Afghan men from the sites were now returning to northern Konduz to establish what condition their property or land was in and whether it could be repaired. He added, however, that many families would remain on the islands during the winter months as they had built wooden and brick buildings to live in, protecting them from the harsh weather. The journey from the islands in Tajikistan to their home village of Imam Sahib was around 10 km, he said. Handley warned there were fears that these refugees would be living in cold and damp conditions leading to respiratory infections with continuing cases of scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency) particularly in women causing the skin to turn black. WFP has been supplying the refugees with food aid as the climate on the islands was not conducive enough for them to be able to grow their own fresh produce. He added that most of the combatants who were living on one of the islands had moved, enabling food supplies to be distributed there. "These refugees also need assistance and the international community must not forget about them," he maintained.