Relief effort continues in quake-stricken area

Emergency rescue teams on Friday were still on the scene two days after a powerful earthquake struck Tajikistan's eastern Rogun area, killing at least three and leaving over 50 people injured. Aid workers on the ground say relief coordination is going well, with the focus now on bringing in as much assistance as possible. "It was a very localised earthquake affecting some 1,300 people," Goulsara Pulatova, programme director for Focus, a US-based NGO working in the area told IRIN from the Tajik capital Dushanbe. "The most affected area was the village of Talkhak Chasma, followed by the smaller village of Taghi Akbar nearby," she explained. Wednesday's quake, measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, destroyed or damaged scores of houses round the Rogun area, an industrial city of 9,000 inhabitants, 100 km northeast of the Tajik capital. However, there was no visible damage to the city, Pulatova maintained, noting the earthquake was shallow in nature, affecting only rural communities nearby. "Most of the people were at home when the earthquake struck," she said. Following a needs assessment conducted on Thursday, in addition to food and medicine, Pulatova prioritised shelter as the primary concern. While estimates vary, at least 600 people are without shelter. "Most of these people have already spent two nights outside," she said. "They need tents, warm clothing, blankets and some type of heating," she said, noting: "Time is very important. It's cold and there is a great deal of snow in the area," she said. Echoing this concern was relief coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), Oystein Larsen in Dushanbe. "The situation is quite bad and 1,300 have lost their homes," he told IRIN, adding that weather conditions remain cold and temperatures have dropped to 10 below at night. As of Thursday, IFRC has distributed warm clothing and blankets in Taghi Akbar and will return in the coming days with clothing for those affected in the larger village. According to a report by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), local assessment teams were sent to all the villages in the area from a government-established coordination centre in the city of Obigarm near Rogun. Located on the opposite side of the Surhob river, along which the main Karategin Valley road runs, Talkhan Chashma and Taghi Akbar are reached from Obigarm after 10 km of treacherous mountain road, interrupted several times by rock falls caused by the quake. The smaller village, Taghi Akbar, has a population of just 50 to 60 people living in six houses, all of which are now damaged or uninhabitable, the report said. Although no casualties were reported, half of the homeless were being hosted in neigbouring villages, while others were staying in a metal container at the edge of the village, possibly to look after their livestock and what few items remained, it added. Meanwhile, in the larger village of Takhan Chasma, home to 1,444 inhabitants and where three children died when the roof of their house collapsed, Tajik authorities ruled that 90 percent of the buildings were no longer safe to live in and both the school and the local primary health care facility had sustained damage. Presently, an open kitchen has been set up outside the mosque with food being brought in from nearby villages. As a result of effective mobilisation of village leaders in the area, space with host families was being offered to the homeless by neighbouring villages, with a few male adults staying behind to look after livestock and possessions left outside in the open. But OCHA field office head Valentin Gatzinski warned that against the backdrop of severe winter conditions and existing impoverishment, these people already lacked the necessary coping mechanisms. "In order to prevent them from selling their already limited assets, livestock, etc, we need to get in food and non-food related items as fast as possible," he told IRIN. "The main issue now is to avoid those people affected from becoming further impoverished by Wednesday's quake," he stressed. While assistance to the affected areas was continuing on Friday, he noted four UN trucks of non-food related assistance had already been dispatched to the area. He added that in addition to food assistance from the Tajik authorities, the World Food Programme (WFP) was set to begin deliveries on Saturday. Asked to comment on the relief effort, Pulatova was positive. "Coordination efforts between the UN, NGO and Tajik authorities are going well," she said. "Already assistance is on the way," she explained.