Quake helicopter service grounded

Poor funding has led to the closure on Wednesday of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) in Pakistan, a critical lifeline to thousands of survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake in the north of the country. Launched just two days after the disaster, the service provided a primary source of relief supplies for many remote communities affected. “It could slow down the reconstruction effort,” Einar Schjolberg, former UNHAS head of mission in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said, commenting on the closure. “If the UN cannot get support [such] as tools, material and food up to the remote areas, then people will stay in the IDP [internally displaced persons] camps,” he warned. Described by many as the largest and most complex humanitarian helicopter operation ever, UNHAS Pakistan brought aid and relief to hundreds, if not thousands, of remote villages and hamlets scattered throughout the 28,000 sq km quake-affected area. More than 80,000 people were killed and 3.5 million people rendered homeless in the 8 October quake, which ripped through Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Many roads into the quake-devastated areas had been blocked or collapsed altogether, making relief efforts into the area all but impossible - and a major logistics nightmare. In an interview with IRIN in late October, Andrew MacLeod, chief of operations for the UN Emergency Coordination Centre in Islamabad, said the use of helicopters was “vital”, with an immediate call for more. But mobilising such an effort has never been cheap. With a proposed budget of US $100 million, up until recently UNHAS employed 24 helicopters in total, including eight from the United States and NATO forces. A non-profit UN service provider under the stewardship of the World Food Programme (WFP), providing it with administrative and logistical support, UNHAS Pakistan was funded by contributions from the donor community and on a cost recovery basis for special flights. However, despite in kind contributions, the service’s operational budget kept changing due to the non-availability of funds, Amjad Jamal, a WFP information officer in Islamabad, explained. “Later, we had no choice but to reduce the number of helicopters and in the end were left with only four,” he added. Further compounding the problem was a lack of agreement between WFP, in collaboration with the UN Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) and other UN agencies, who wanted the service open through August following the summer’s monsoon period, and government authorities who didn’t see the need for it. “They [the government] thought the roads would be open and we could carry material by road instead of keeping this extensive helicopter operation going,” Jamal elaborated. And while it is difficult to gauge what impact the closure will have on reconstruction efforts now under way, he warned with monsoon rains fast approaching, there was a strong risk of landslides and roads being blocked. “The mission’s closure will definitely hamper the recovery phase,” the WFP officer maintained, noting while not alarming, access in getting much needed supplies to populations now returning to their villages could be delayed. Since WFP launched its relief effort to quake victims almost eight months ago, it has delivered some 85,000 mt of food assistance to some 1 million beneficiaries in northern Pakistan, using planes, helicopters, trucks, rafts and pack mules. In addition to vital food and non-food assistance amounting to some 28,000 mt, UNHAS Pakistan was instrumental in ferrying aid workers to the field, as well as many quake survivors in need of medical evacuation. At the height of the disaster, the helicopter service was moving up to 420 mt of goods a day.