Focus on UNHCR efforts to keep quake survivors warm

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stepped up its winterisation campaign in emergency relief camps in northern Pakistan with a new round of blanket distribution and is exploring ways to keep quake survivors warm while minimising the risk of tent fires. "By providing every person with three blankets for personal insulation and each tent with two additional plastic sheets and four mattresses to cover the tents' roof and ground for additional warmth - we are trying to fill gaps to make sure everyone receives the full package needed to help them cope with winter," Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's emergency coordinator for earthquake relief said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Friday. UNHCR efforts As the lead agency of the camp management cluster, the UN refugee agency is providing material and technical support to Pakistani authorities and local NGOs in about 37 planned camps housing some 57,000 displaced people in parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "Living conditions at almost 85 percent of the organised camps are winterised [tents or shelters capable of offering adequate protection from freezing temperatures] and we are now focusing more on spontaneous camps," said Ratwatte. Along with five bases across the extended quake-affected region of some 30,000 sq km, UNHCR has also deployed about 60 Quick Impact Teams (QIT) to cover the remote valleys of Allai in NWFP and Jehlum and Neelum in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. At the same time, employing its 26-year experience with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the agency has been attempting to improve living conditions in spontaneous quake camps by sending its technical teams to build latrines, communal kitchens and other infrastructure to provide basic services in the camps. According to UNHCR, the agency has already distributed over 20,000 tents, 60,000 plastic sheets and 430,000 blankets to quake survivors. This is due to be supplemented with another 77,000 plastic sheets and 250,000 blankets in another round of distribution to be completed in two weeks. The powerful earthquake of 8 October has proved the most devastating natural disaster in Pakistan's 58-year history. More than 80,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured after the powerful quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped through NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The death toll is set to still rise. More than 9,000 people were still missing, mostly from NWFP, Federal Relief Commissioner, Maj Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan told a press briefing on Friday. In addition, over 3.5 million people were rendered homeless across the region, with extensive damage to public service infrastructure. An estimated 2.3 million people need food support throughout the harsh Himalayan winter. Warnings of another catastrophe Aid groups working in the area have been continuously warning of a second wave of death unless urgent steps were not taken to meet the humanitarian needs of over three million quake survivors caught in a desperate struggle for survival in the cold. "The falling temperatures could be lethal," Barbara Stocking, the director of the UK-based charity, Oxfam, said on Friday in Islamabad. Children were falling sick in the freezing temperatures suffering from respiratory ailments while heating had been a problem because of the risk of tent fire, she said. "There is so much more that needs to be done urgently. We need to improve conditions in the spontaneous camps and reach those who have stayed further up in the mountains," Stocking noted, calling on the international community to honour its pledges and deliver resources to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe. Need for better shelter On Thursday, Pakistan's representative to the UN in Geneva, Masood Khan, called for more substantial winter shelter for quake survivors, particularly to those living above 1,500 m. He highlighted the need for more blankets, winter coats, fleece jackets, food and sleeping bags. "It is imperative to save lives in the next two to three months before entering an early recovery phase," Khan told a meeting convened by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Jan Vandemoortele, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, identified coordination and cash flow as basic ingredients for the success of relief efforts. He appealed to donors to ensure a timely flow of funds to meet urgent humanitarian requirements in the harsh winter conditions. The challenge of keeping survivors warm Keeping survivors warm has to be balanced against the risk of fire from heat and cooking sources inside tents. Wary of tent fires, the Pakistani authorities have banned cooking on fires under canvas, instead have made the arrangements for collective communal cooking and heating places in organised camps. As an added precaution, to minimise the risk of tent fires, every military-run camp now has several "fire stops" in prominent places, with information on fire prevention, as well as fire extinguishers and buckets filled with sand. But most tent fires that have broken out have been within the 335 spontaneous and less organised camps - home to some 127,000 displaced people. To address this challenge, UNHCR is tapping the expertise of Afghan refugees who survived their first winter in Pakistan under similar weather conditions. The 'Afghan fireplace', consisting of a mud brick structure with a smoke outlet - that provides warmth and a place to cook in relative safety is just one of several ideas being explored to help quake survivors ride out the winter without succumbing to tent fires. "No method is foolproof," said UNHCR's Ratwatte. "It's a matter of prioritising, which risk is bigger - hypothermia or fire. We are currently in discussions with the Pakistan army that is running many of the relief camps. It's the government's decision and we'll try to support it as much as we can." UNHCR is also recommending a series of low cost winterisation techniques, like pitching a tent in a pit about a metre deep, using plastic sheets as ground sheeting and to insulate the roof of the tent as far as possible