Health recovery plan in quake-zone at risk this winter

A multi-million dollar health recovery plan aimed at maintaining transitional medical services through the winter in quake-affected northern Pakistan is now under threat due to a severe lack of funds, officials warned on Tuesday.

“Of the US $40 million needed to fund health programmes from May 2006 to April 2007, we have so far received only between $14 to $16 million,” Dr Rayana Bouhaka, head of the earthquake emergency health programme at the World Health Organization (WHO), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

She was not alone in her concern.

“Our health sector is not among the best funded. If we get a really bad winter it will be a very severe test for the health sector to face. So we have to be ready for that,” Jan Vandemoortele, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan, said at a press briefing last week.

A $190 million Early Recovery Plan (ERP), a joint project of the government of Pakistan, the United Nations system and NGOs, was launched in May this year, mainly to bridge the gap from relief to reconstruction in the country’s quake-affect north.

Over 75,000 people were killed and thousands more injured after the powerful 7.6 magnitude quake ripped through Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 8 October last year, rendering more than 3.5 million homeless.

The recovery plan, covering a 12-month period from May 2006 to April 2007, charted concrete proposals in priority sectors such as health, education, water and sanitation, housing, shelter and camp management and disaster risk reduction.

“The ERP is not only to continue transitional activities in the quake-affected areas through this winter, but also to put the damaged/destroyed health system back in running mode in an improved form until the permanent facilities get ready in three years’ time,” Bouhaka said.

But that may be easier said than done. Presently, the transitional health system run by government and non-government partners has been covering most of the population in all the eight quake-affected districts. However, most of the health units were providing only basic healthcare and a not a full-range of medical services. The concerns now are that the funding shortfall may well affect this basic healthcare provision.

“We need to make sure that these facilities continue to operate through the period of severe cold, with sufficient supply of essential drugs and staff. In particular, those health units located in remote and far-off places where roads are cut-off in peak winter,” the WHO’s Bouhaka said.

To meet the transitional needs, the WHO has built some 35 basic health units – all equipped with medicine, supplies and furniture. Another 20 rural health units are set to be completed by the first week of October.

“However, many more health facilities operating in quake zone are not fully equipped in terms of essential supplies and staff. Even sometimes they are operating in simple tents. They all need support and timely support to keep them running through coming season,” the WHO official said.

TS/AT/JL/DS