Further consolidation of quake relief effort

UN agencies gathered in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, in a further effort to coordinate relief efforts with NGOs, donors and the government to quake-affected areas of the country. “It’s obvious that the job of relief and reconstruction will be colossal,” Jan Vandermoortele, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, said at the press conference. “The scarcest commodity at this time is time,” Vandermoortele warned, adding all the rest money can buy. “Money cannot buy time,” he stressed, calling for a scaling up of relief on the ground. “The weather is against us. The winter is closing in,” he emphasised, noting while progress had been made, difficult terrain had made providing relief a logistical nightmare. At least 50,000 people were killed and almost 75,000 injured after the powerful quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped through Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on 8 October. Over 3 million people were rendered homeless. But according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), those figures could worsen as the exact impact of what has been described as the most devastating earthquake on the subcontinent ever, unfolds. “The window of opportunity for life-saving operations is estimated to last for about 25 days before the winter sets in,” OCHA warned one day earlier. Helicopters, winterised tents, blankets/sleeping bags, sanitation (particularly latrines) and food assistance for some 1 million people are just some of the key priority needs as deteriorating weather conditions hamper relief efforts on the ground. “The top priority ladies and gentlemen overall is tents and emergency shelter,” Vandermoortele said, repeating many of the items listed above. Although relief efforts are focusing on providing assistance as close to the affected areas as possible, it is estimated that camps for 500,000 beneficiaries will need to be planned, including for those who chose to relocate. Meanwhile, access to some areas remained impossible, aid workers complained. The worst hit areas in the Neelum valley, northeast of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, remained inaccessible, including Pateka and Devlica, with at least 50,000 people living there, including untreated injured. Yet it is precisely just such challenges that have spurred the UN to take a different approach. Working in some 10 “clusters”, ranging from emergency shelter, health, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, logistics, and child protection, agencies, organisations and NGOs are coordinating their expertise together. “Rather than people working to their own mandates and assessments, they’re pooling their information – something which is key,” Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the UN’s Emergency Response Centre in Islamabad, said. When the main hospital in Muzaffarabad had experienced difficulties with safe drinking water, this was reported to the water and sanitation cluster who quickly coordinated a response, Pitt said, adding shortly afterwards, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) arrived with potable drinking water kits and remedied the problem. “It was done by one organisation, using the information from many organisations,” she explained. Meanwhile, many people are tapped into many clusters at the same time, with some organisations working in several. “The World Food Programme (WFP) is leading two clusters in fact: food and nutrition and logistics,” Pitt explained, citing their immense experience and expertise in those areas. But the work cannot be done without the many partners on the ground. This was why it was important to work together in clusters to ensure that all the expertise – and lessons learned from previous disasters as well – had come together, the UN official added.