Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele

Almost one year after a devastating earthquake ravaged much of northern Pakistan, killing 75,000 people and leaving more than 3.5 million people homeless, survivors continue to grapple with rebuilding their lives.

In an interview on Thursday, Jan Vandemoortele, the United Nation’s (UN) Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, who has been on the ground since the 8 October disaster, shared his perspective on what has been achieved over the past 11 months and the immense challenges that remain.

“With the donors, we strongly believe that as long as we can show that there is progress on the ground, that schools are going up, that hospitals are being rebuilt and that roads are staying open, I think every donor that made a pledge at last year’s donor conference in Islamabad will want to be part of that success story,” Vandemoortele said.

QUESTION: It’s almost one year since the quake struck.

How would you describe the current situation on the ground and where are we now in terms of relief and reconstruction?

ANSWER: I think the relief effort was efficient and impressive. Most people agree. We are about six months into the post-relief phase. Work is going relatively very well and reconstruction is taking place. More than 300,000 families have been paid the second instalment for the rebuilding of their houses [the Pakistan government provides home owners approximately US $3,000 to rebuild].

You will see that when you go into the area building is occurring all over the place.

There are [however] two groups of people who are seeing less progress. It is the urban people – especially those people who live in the so-called ‘red zone’. That is parts of Balakot and Muzaffarabad, the two urban areas in the affected area, which have been declared no rebuilding zones because of the fault lines.

Actually all of Balakot – a city of about 30,000 people – needs to be relocated elsewhere, as do 5,000 to 10,000 people in Muzaffarabad.

They have to be relocated and you can’t do that overnight. Plans are required, land must be purchased and assessments need to be done.

The second group of people is those who remain in camps. We had over 300,000 people in camps during the winter. Only about 10 percent are left now, with about 35,000 people still living in camps. Those people are mostly there because they have become landless due to the earthquake and landslides, or they have physical handicaps. Most people have pulled out of the area, including the camp management, and the conditions in those camps have not improved.

Q: You mentioned the plight of urban people.

What about those living in rural areas?

A: In the villages and hamlets they’re busy - busy doing their farm work and busy with their livestock. But most of all they’re busy with rebuilding their houses. This is occupation number one. Its amazing the amount of material, cement, wood – all the building construction material that is going up into these areas. As the numbers indicate, we probably have close to 400,000 houses that are being rebuilt at the same time.

Q: Your assessment of the situation sounds quite optimistic.

What do you think is the most pressing issue right now?

A: The most pressing issue is to ensure that these people who are not able to rebuild have adequate transitional shelter, shelter that will probably have to last for three or four years because those new buildings, those new cities and towns will not come up within one or two years. It’s impossible. We have to make sure that those people have adequate accommodation. That is not in tents. We are determined to make their winter this year better than last winter.

Alternative materials are being brought in so as to avoid the number of tents this winter.

The second challenge is health for all the population – both urban and rural. We had extremely good coverage last winter because of the many field hospitals coming in from all over the world. We had an excellent coverage. Many of those people have now gone back for normal, understandable reasons. We are testing whether the existing infrastructure is up and running to cover the needs in winter because we will of course be seeing incidents of influenza, flu, bronchitis and pneumonia and we have to be ready to respond to that.

Q: With regard to the issue of shelter, can you give me some indication in terms of numbers how many people you estimate are without adequate housing?

A: There are about 35,000 people that continue to live in camps.

We estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 people will come down the mountains again during the winter. Then we have an urban population of about 70,000 that will have to be accommodated. The government now is putting up as many prefabricated structures as possible to give to those families, especially the urban ones. But of course we can’t have prefabs for all those people. Prefabricated housing is the first option and several countries, including Saudi Arabia, are bringing in several thousand of those prefab options.

But we are looking at other options such as corrugated iron sheets with wooden frames so there will not be any tents.

Q: Earlier there had been some hesitancy on the part of the government in using prefabricated housing. Why the change of heart?

A: They have realised that rebuilding entire neighbourhoods and towns is going to take more than one year. Some people still believe this can be done in the next two years. My position is that if it can be done in the next five years, it will be a success.

We need accommodation for those people for at least three years.

Q: So do you think that most people will have access to adequate housing this winter?

A: They will. Most of them will be adequately housed and you will see that. In the urban areas we are solving those temporary shelter issues. In the rural areas, the houses that people are building will not be finished for the winter. Most of them are still at the foundation level or plinth level. But they have their adequate one or two rooms that will keep them warm and dry for the winter just like last winter.

The only difference is that this time the shelter will be of a bit better quality and they will have more space.

Q: You mentioned that thousands of people have returned to their villages and received the second instalment of the government subsidy to rebuild, but there are many that haven’t started at all. Why is that and what is the problem?

A: The policy in Pakistan is not for the government to rebuild. The government has decided to subsidise the owners for them to rebuild.

The subsidy is about $3,000 per house. We estimate that there are about 600,000 units that fall into this category. Of course you can’t start giving out those subsidies without doing a proper assessment of the house. Is the house really damaged or destroyed? Who is the owner of the house? There are many claims, but the claim has to be lawful.

All these things take time. The engineering inspection, the legal search for ownership takes time. As of the end of August, of the 600,000 homes they have already done 500,000 assessments and 370,000 payments have already been carried out [the second instalment].

It’s a rolling thing, but it can’t be done any faster. Otherwise, there could be mismanagement or misappropriation.

Q: Given the tight time constraints with winter approaching, there is obviously a real risk that many people without adequate housing will come back down from the mountains for assistance. How concerned are you about this possibility and what is the UN, in coordination with the government, doing specifically to address this?

A: Most people in the humanitarian community do not believe that the numbers of people coming down from the mountains will be as large as last year.

The rebuilding of the houses is going on, but the people have emergency shelter to pass this winter. Their house will be finished next year. It will not be finished this year. But it doesn’t mean that the people don’t have adequate shelter. What we are doing with the government is ensuring that food and emergency shelter, especially the iron-corrugated sheets, are in place in the foreword areas so if it comes to an emergency we can quickly set up some structures. We also have a stockpile of winter tents in case we will need them.

And we are bringing in a small fleet of helicopters, again as part of our winter preparations, in the event that this winter proves to be a hard one.

Q: As cold weather descends, access to many remote areas, particularly those above the tree line, will become all but impossible. What efforts are being made specifically on the issue of food assistance to ensure that those people who are cut off are assisted?

A: This is a challenge that the people face every winter. There is a system in place.

Before the winter, the government does stockpiling – they call them ‘dumps’ – in the mountainous areas. There, food will be sold at subsidised prices to the people. And the people themselves know very well, better than anybody else, that they will be snowed in for the winter. So they will buy enough food stocks to have at home to survive the two or three months that they are snowed in.

Q: Traditionally, many of these people store food under their homes during the winter months to sustain themselves.

What impact has the earthquake had on the overall coping mechanisms of these people?

A: I think they are well prepared. They have different systems of coping mechanisms. One of them is that every year part of the family descends from the mountains and spends the winter in the valley with relatives. We will see that again. Some of those people will not have a place to go to so they are likely to come to the camps.

Then there will be a distribution within the family from the people who stay in the camp back to the remaining part of the family that stays in the hamlets in the mountains.

We know that this will happen and that’s fine. They have an internal distribution system which then goes on the back of a mule, and very often on the back of a human being, up and down the mountains.

Q: In terms of the overall reconstruction effort you have seen over the past year, what in your view has been the humanitarian community’s greatest success in addressing the needs of those affected?

A: I think the health coverage was a major achievement. I don’t think the people in the affected area were as ever as well covered by health services as they were in the past 12 months.

The second major achievement I believe is the same for education.

We have been able to sustain the education beyond the relief effort. The schools and the classes in the hamlets are going up, the tents are being put in the villages, and the children that have returned from the camps to the hamlets and villages continue to go to school.

Q: And what about failures?

A: The failures are that our helicopter fleet could have been used more efficiently. We had a huge fleet. You will remember that at one stage we had 27 UN helicopters. One lesson that we have learned is that next time around we should immediately start charging the passengers and the cargo with a fee.

That way, there is no frivolous consumption and we create a bit of a revolving fund so for this winter we would have depended less on the donor generosity and been able to book those three or four helicopters that we want to have on the ground this winter. This will be a difficult case with the donors. Most of the donors do not believe there is a need for that. We want to be cautious and want to have that little fleet on the ground.

Q: Reconstruction of the quake area is obviously going to take years.

How concerned are you that the ongoing issues for quake survivors will drop off the radar screen entirely, seriously affecting donor response?

A: We are concerned and it’s natural once the images disappear from the media screen. Those things are replaced by other emergencies, other crises in the world. With the donors, we strongly believe that as long as we can show that there is progress on the ground, that schools are going up, that hospitals are being rebuilt and that roads are staying open, I think every donor that made a pledge at last year’s donor conference in Islamabad will want to be part of that success story.

It’s only when there is no credibility in the operation, in terms of lack of results that the pledges will remain pledges and never materialise.

So we believe by showing everyone that this is for real, that people are benefiting from the money, the funds will continue to flow.

Q: So the donor community is still actively engaged?

A: Very much so. We have regular donor meetings. The reconstruction authority is in good hands. They are taking the leadership and twice a month we have consultations with the donors and NGOs. They now have a monthly progress report and then we continue to have [meetings], on a regular basis, [with] a group of the seven principle donors with the [Pakistani] Ministry of Finance... on the financial aspects.

Q: One year after the quake, what will be the humanitarian community’s greatest challenge for the next 12 months in helping quake survivors?

A: For the coming year, barring a very harsh winter that could upset our expectations, that we will see the people stay where they are in the mountains, that they will only come down if it’s a really harsh winter – barring that, the major challenge is health.

We are again facing the winter, and the winter is always a particularly difficult period, especially for the most vulnerable – the children and the elderly.

The health system was shaken badly. Foreigners replaced it last winter. Foreigners will not replace it this winter. We have to ensure that we aren’t going to see a second wave of deaths one year later."