Humanitarian situation in south remains poor

While security concerns continue to hamper efforts by the United Nations to access Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold, there is growing evidence that conditions there are improving, aid workers told IRIN on Wednesday. Humanitarian needs throughout much of southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, remain acute and in neighbouring Helmand Province, the situation looks set to deteriorate unless greater assistance is brought in soon. "In Kandahar, non-food items and food are the primary needs of the population, but in Helmand the situation is far more dire," Scott Heidler, information officer for the international nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Mercy Corps, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday. "People there need pretty much everything, and we are currently assessing the situation to prioritise those needs," he said. Heidler, who has just returned from the region, said bazaars and fruit stands in Kandahar, the country's second largest city, were open, noting that even some video and music shops had reopened their doors to customers. "People are trying to get on with life, and seem hopeful," he said. Such optimism, however, could not apply to Helmand Province, to the southwest of Kandahar, an area known for its hot, dry and dusty terrain. "While there are certainly strong needs in Kandahar city, the situation in Helmand Province is much worse," Heidler said. "Our staff were shocked at the conditions these people were forced to live in", after concluding an assessment of some six to seven thousand families in the area on Tuesday. Echoing this, Alex Jones, the Mercy Corps director of programmes, told IRIN from Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, that although needs in Kandahar city were less than had been expected, those in Helmand were far higher and on a much greater scale. Having recently completed a limited distribution of non-food items in Kandahar city, he noted that they had not found very many displaced people. "Our recent assessment found only 500 families," Jones said. There were a large number of people in need, but they would be categorised as vulnerable rather than displaced, and were in need of food and medical services, he explained. During a survey conducted in four districts around Lashkar Gah, however, the NGO found 1,700 internally displaced families, about 60 percent of whom had inadequate shelter. "They are living in bushes with rags tied above them," he said. Jones said there was no visible bombing damage in Lashkar Gah and much of the surrounding area. "The war is really only a footnote in the humanitarian crisis. The real problem is the continuing drought," he said. The Helmand, the main river flowing through southern Afghanistan, was down to about one-sixth of its normal level, Jones said. He said the river was important because the entire region owed its existence to it. "The fact that the river has been reduced to such a level reflects the dire straits these people are in." Mercy Corps has worked in Kandahar for the past 10 years, and last week became the first international NGO to re-establish an expatriate presence in the city. In addition to having been cut off from international assistance for the past three months, southern Afghanistan continues to suffer from the worst drought in living memory. During Mercy Corps' assessment of the situation in Kandahar and Helmand, there were no security incidents. Heidler noted, however, that armed groups were still present along the road to Lashkar Gah. Given security concerns, southern Afghanistan is one of few areas where the United Nations has a limited presence on the ground, making information about conditions there extremmely limited.