Relief assistance needed in Khatker

Around 25 km up along the River Jehlum, heading towards the mountains, lies Khatker, an area in Pakistani-administered Kashmir yet to be visited by relief groups, local residents claim. Despite being less than 60 km from Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, it takes more than three hours to negotiate the steep road to Mushtumba, a village of around 4,000 residents in the Khatker area, over 1,500 m above sea level. After Chikar village, the remaining 20 km to Mushtumba becomes a battered path with remnants of asphalt and turns in some places into safari-like terrain with stones covering it. “The damage caused by the 8 October earthquake in the area is huge,” Zaid Enjam, 48, a local builder, said on Monday, adding that more than 85 percent of the houses were either destroyed or damaged. “We were provided with tents by the [Pakistani] military,” Atiq Rahman, a teacher at Mushtumba’s school, said. “But most of them are no good as it is really cold at night. Last night it was minus 2 degrees [Celsius]." Indeed, most of the tents in Mushtumba, as in many other villages and camps in the area, are not winterised and survivors are struggling to keep themselves warm during at night. Only a handful of lucky villagers were given Chinese-made winterised tents, which the local residents said were good. Residents maintain that in winter snow cover can reach up to 1 m. “We need shelter before the snow falls,” Asim, another villager, complained, adding that they had already seen snow a few weeks ago, which has melted away under the current unusually warm day-time weather. “When the snowfall comes, the road to our area will be closed to any transport for the whole winter.” “The main problem here is a lack of sheets, blankets and quilts,” Enjam concurred, adding that tents would be no protection with snowfall expected in a matter of weeks. “The [Pakistani] army gave us only a tent with a couple of blankets and that’s it,” Nazrana Begum, 55, said, showing her tent where she and 11 members of her extended family were now living. Another resident complained that they had been forgotten by relief groups altogether. “The Pakistani Red Crescent Society gave us flour and rice - 15 kg of each to a family, with cooking oil, just a week ago – more than two months after the earthquake. But how are we going to survive with that food through the winter?” Atiq Rahman, a local teacher asked, adding that on average there were at least seven members in each family in the area. Several hours later an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) convoy loaded with some 4,000 quilts, tarpaulins and corrugated iron sheets, reached the village. “We will also be providing kitchen utensils to those households who lost them,” Idris Dar, IOM’s ground assessments manager in Muzaffarabad, said. Local residents lost most of their livestock and believe their future will prove grim if no further assistance arrives. “People lost most of their cattle. In order to survive some slaughtered their cattle that were spared by the earthquake. Moreover, there is no place to keep the cattle,” one resident said, adding that the roads would be closed in a matter of days when the snowfall comes. Still another issue in Mushtumba is that of water. “We had around five springs. More than half of them went dry. Women and girls have to bring water from other springs, walking for up to 3 km,” Zulfikar Hussain, head of a local NGO in the village, said. Some relief workers concede that several areas, including Mushtumba, had not received much in terms of relief as the focus of their activities had been on even higher altitude villages over the past few weeks.