Rain brings quake survivors south once more

For the past week, Mansoor Alam, 32, a cook working at a private home in the Punjab capital Lahore, has been visiting other relatives scattered across the city.

He is seeking space to house the families of his two brothers, who travelled down from their village near Muzaffarabad, the quake-ravaged capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, a short while ago.

For the moment, the eight people, comprising Mansoor's two sister-in-laws and their children, are living in his tiny servant quarters, a space barely measuring three square metres, or camping in the small corridor that runs along it. Mansoor's own wife, Gul Bibi, 28, and two children, are also housed with him.

"It is simply not possible to live like this. Last winter, my employers were sympathetic to the plight of the quake victims, and gave us some room in the garage and store area, but now, a year after the disaster, they have lost patience and say I can't keep so many people here," Mansoor told IRIN.

His eldest sister-in-law, Jehan Bibi, adds: "We know it is very difficult for people here to keep us, but we cannot survive up there now that the snows have started, because our house is still not fully built."

The latest move southwards has come in the wake of countrywide rains and heavy snow in many northern areas of Pakistan, including those hit by the quake of 8 October 2005.

More than a year later, many who survived the disaster, which killed more than 75,000 people and left another 3.5 million homeless, are still without adequate shelter.

In addition, according to the UN, about 300,000 survivors risk being cut off from food supply lines in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Most people are expected to live in makeshift shelters such as this one during the winter in quake-affected areas of northern Pakistan

Predictions that winter will be much harsher than in 2005 have raised additional concern about the welfare of survivors.

"My father will be sending my mother and younger sisters to me, as he thinks winter in Allai will be very fierce this year and we have no food stocks at home," said Aziz Khan, 24, a waiter from the remote Allai Valley in NWFP.

His father, Koram Khan, 55, plans to stay at their village in Allai to look after his house, land and livestock.

Early in December, the World Food Programme (WFP) positioned 10,000 mt of emergency food supplies at base camps in Kashmir for transport to isolated communities. WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad that "many quake survivors couldn't prepare for winter as they normally would because they spent the summer rebuilding their homes or because of financial constraints".

Another 36,000 survivors are still based in refugee camps at lower altitudes receiving WFP aid.

Over the past three days, at least 12 people have died in NWFP and Kashmir in snow or rain-related incidents. Most deaths have come as a result of the collapsed roofs caused by heavy rains. There have also been multiple landslides, causing injuries, damage to homes and the blocking of many roads including those leading into the Allai and Kaghan areas in NWFP and the Jehlum and Neelum valleys in Kashmir.

Attempts continue, mainly by Pakistani army personnel, to clear the roads – but there are fears that more snows over the coming weeks could aggravate the problems.

The weather has also been taking its toll in other ways.

"At least six children have died in villages around here over the past three days due to diarrhoea or pneumonia," Muzaffarabad district health official Sardar Mahmood Ahmed told IRIN over the telephone.

There have also been reports of an increase in respiratory infections in many areas hit by the first winter freeze.
These conditions and acute fears that food supplies will not get through mean that, as happened the previous year, families have once more chosen to move to lower altitudes. With most camps closed down, their only option has been to move in with relatives.

Many migrant workers, mostly employed as labourers, drivers, waiters or domestic workers from NWFP and Kashmir, are based in Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Karachi.

"We know of other people from Kashmir who are planning to come down or are already here. Many are very fearful of the weeks ahead, with winter having set in early this year," said Mansoor Alam, now locked in a desperate struggle to sustain the relatives living with him through the months ahead, before they are able to return to their blighted homes in the spring.

KH/JL/DS