Focus on shelter

Providing shelter to millions of returning refugees or displaced persons throughout Afghanistan remains a key challenge for the international humanitarian community, in spite of ongoing efforts. As winter fast approaches, this challenge is going to increase, particularly in the Afghan capital, Kabul - a city which is experiencing a major influx of returnees. "We had no choice but to return," Mohammad Yusuf told IRIN. "Now we have nowhere to live because our house was destroyed." A recent arrival from Pakistan, Yusuf and his children have joined some 50 other families living in the bombed out remains of Kabul's former cultural centre. Originally from the northern province of Takhar, Yusuf said there was no way he would take his family there because their safety could not be ensured. However, Yusuf's story is hardly unique. In another part of the crumbling building, riddled with holes after years of bombardment, another 12 families - each confined to one room for up to eight people - face the same challenge. “My husband drives an old taxi and I have two sons who are out of work and another two children to feed,” Gulalai told IRIN. “We survive on whatever my husband makes but it's not enough and my children complain of hunger,” she lamented. The mother of six added that living conditions were better in the camp they had been living in in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) prior to their return. “We are happy to be home after so many years, but my children’s lives will be miserable if we stay here,” she sobbed. But in this city of two million, such misery among the ruins serves only to highlight what is already well known within the aid community. Afghanistan faces a desperate need for shelter. As more and more Afghans return each day to restart their lives in a country devastated by more than two decades of war - and with donors increasingly slow to react to immediate needs - the problem of shelter looks set only to worsen. “The population of Kabul is expected to double in the next year or so," UNHCR central region head Felipe Camargo told IRIN. "There is an urgent need for the international community to realise this. Without proper housing Kabul will be full of slums in a very high earthquake-prone area." His concern was echoed by others in the aid community. “We are conducting a survey on how many people are without shelter in the city,” area coordinator for the central region of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), Jens Tranum-Kristensen, told IRIN. “There are thousands of people living in squalor,” he claimed. Meanwhile, at an abandoned shoe factory, just outside Kabul city, is a similar story. Returnees are occupying any empty building in desperation. “Most of the buildings were destroyed during fighting and they may not be safe for people to live in,” Tranum-Kristensen warned, adding that many were taking the initiative to build their own homes by digging clay from the mountains surrounding the city to make bricks. Such initiatives, however, are problematic and could have serious hygiene implications. “This is fine for the short term, but there is no sanitation or access to clean water supplies, which could cause outbreaks of illnesses,” he explained. Moreover, with aid agencies reporting that some 15 percent of all children returning to Afghanistan suffer from malnutrition, there are also concerns over job opportunities and the buying power of families who have returned. Further exacerbating the problem is the threat of eviction from the buildings, many of which are state owned properties. Additionally, many of the thousands of widow-head households, who had taken up residence in dilapidated and abandoned buildings after their owners had fled to Pakistan and Iran, now face eviction as their owners return. “Winter is approaching and these people should have some shelter, otherwise there could be some fatal consequences,” Tranum-Kristensen said. The Afghan ministry for refugees and repatriation has also expressed concern over the extra burden facing cities such as Kabul and has reiterated its call to the international community to deliver on billions of dollars worth of pledges made in Tokyo earlier this year. But with each passing day, the situation in the capital is increasingly getting worse. So far half a million Afghans have returned to Kabul, with most originating from the Panjsheer Valley, some 100 km from the city and from the Shomali Plains, 20 km from the capital. Recognising the needs of returnees, a proposal to re-house them has been put forward by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements - Habitat. The plan includes the identification of 17,000 plots around the city as possible sites for new homes. “This project will cost a huge amount of money and they are still awaiting funding,” Tranum-Kristensen explained. Funding aside, however, it is increasingly clear that the clock is ticking - not just in Kabul, but throughout the country. With just three months to go before the onset of winter weather, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is rushing to provide shelter for hundreds of thousands of returnees in rural Afghanistan. "Winter is certainly on the minds of the more and than one and a half million Afghans we've so far helped home," agency spokesman Ron Redmond said in a statement on Friday. "We're working to provide shelter for 400,000 people this year, and with so much of Afghanistan in ruins, they need all the help they can get." According to the announcement, 50,000 shelter kits, consisting of 30 wooden poles, a door, two window frames, nails and tools will be distributed in devastated areas, including the Shomali plains of Kabul province, and elsewhere throughout the country. Areas around Mazar-e Sharif in the north, Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south and central Ghazni are also expected to receive contributions. In addition to shelter kits, tents have also been handed out to families in the Shomali plains and central highlands areas like Bamyan that were particularly hard hit after years of fighting - enabling them to provide temporary shelter while they rebuild their homes. All refugees going home under the UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation programme also receive two plastic tarpaulins as part of their assistance package. To date, UNHCR has made agreements with 15 NGO partners to identify needy families and distribute more than 41,000 of the 50,000 planned shelter kits - the objective being that the families make the necessary mud bricks themselves. Once their homes have been rebuilt to about shoulder height, the agency's NGOs will hand over the kits so that the returnees can construct the roof and the necessary support beams. As part of its US $35 million shelter programme, UNHCR has shipped 240 mt of nails to distribution points throughout Afghanistan, along with 240,000 door hinges and a similar number of tool kits - each containing a hammer, shovel and pick axe. The agency has also purchased 40,000 cubic metres of timber (beams and lintels), and is seeking regional suppliers to provide 263,000 more beams. Moreover, it's funding local carpentry workshops in which Afghan craftsmen build doors and windows needed for the shelter kits. But given the gravity of the situation, the task is a daunting one. Finding enough NGOs with the staff necessary to evaluate shelter needs in many areas of devastated Afghanistan remains a challenge. Ironically, as more and more Afghans return to their homeland with their belongings, the agency is finding it's competing with returnees for trucks to ensure that its supplies get delivered throughout the country. "It's a real race against time to ensure that needy Afghans have the shelter they need to get through the winter," Redmond said. UNHCR, which faces a US $42 million funding shortfall in Afghanistan, had originally planned to provide 97,000 shelter kits this year. However, according to Friday's statement, that objective had to be halved to ensure adequate funds to provide travel assistance for the number of returnees, already far exceeding earlier expectations. Since the joint UNHCR Afghan transitional authority initiative started on 1 March, more than 1.4 million Afghans have returned to their homeland, the vast majority from neigbouring Pakistan. In a parallel movement, more than 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned home with the help of UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and other agencies. Another over 400,000 displaced Afghans have returned without assistance, joining an estimated 200,000 refugees who had spontaneously repatriated, it added.