Millions of destitutes facing long wait: Relief flights cancelled
MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 16: Heavy rains forced the cancellation of nearly all helicopter aid flights on Sunday, leaving millions of destitute and drenched earthquake survivors waiting in the mountains for aid that could mean life or death.
More than a week after the Oct 8 earthquake which tore apart entire villages, much of the relief aid was just trickling in to the neediest areas. Aid workers looked for donkeys and mules to get them through.
Only two choppers braved the foul weather which brought new misery to the more than three million homeless people in Muzaffarabad. The helicopters were cancelled a day after the massive aid operation saw its first accident when a Pakistani army helicopter crashed near the Kashmiri town of Bagh.
Relief flights were also called off in Indian-held Kashmir, an Indian army officer said.
Maj Fayaz Ali said the only choppers to fly in Muzaffarabad on Sunday were from the German military, which sent engineers to repair a remote road and bring back injured, and from the Aga Khan Foundation charity.
“It’s cloudy and there is no clear air route,” Maj Ali said.
“The day was not completely lost. Some relief goods were sent by road.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz instructed aviation authorities not to charge landing fees and other charges from foreign planes engaged in the transportation of relief goods for quake victims.
The interior ministry has directed immigration staff and FIA personnel at all national airports to provide a 3-month gratis visa/landing permit to all relief workers and doctors arriving from abroad whose intent is to participate in relief activity in the quake-hit areas.
“This facility has become valid with immediate effect”, the ministry said in a statement.
Relief workers said there was no time to spare because thousands were at risk of dying unless they got help — particularly shelter.
“It’s a logistical nightmare especially so in the little villages and for the people who are coming into Muzaffarabad. The situation is catastrophic here,” said Alain Pasche, coordinator of UN relief operations in Muzaffarabad.
In the villages, “the problem is that we don’t have any toll. We don’t know the exact population or their needs. There is a lack of means. The army stocks are all under the rubble,” he said.
So far four countries — the United States, Germany, Japan and impoverished neighbour Afghanistan — have responded to Pakistan’s request for helicopters but the Japanese choppers are not yet in operation, officials said.
Keith Ursel of the World Food Programme said the UN agency has distributed 40 tons of high-energy biscuits but it was still waiting to hand out 500 tons per day of traditional-food rations including lentils, wheat, tea, dates and sugar.
“It’s too slow and too difficult. We’ll get horses and donkeys today hopefully,” he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was also just beginning its work in Azad Kashmir after conducting an aerial assessment on Saturday, UNHCR official Joseph Robinson said.
The supplies are coming in more than a week after the earthquake despite repeated warnings that thousands face disease or even death unless they urgently get help.
The latest note of alarm came from Balakot in North West Frontier Province, where a doctor said a catastrophe could be under way in the remote mountains.
“It’s absolutely urgent right now to send tents to give people shelter. If nothing is done there will be thousands of deaths” in mountain villages, said Thierry Velu, head of the French aid group Groupe de Secours Catastrophe Francais.
Survivors who went days without care for fractured bones now include “several cases of pneumonia and some serious infections that are going to require amputations,” he said.
Survivors are still spending nights without shelter or medical assistance in sub-zero temperatures.
Shelter is the number one priority, with a need for many more tents than are currently in the pipeline. Local stocks are now exhausted, but 16,000 have been delivered and close to 70,000 tents are already on their way. Other assessments are under way to determine the location and scope of temporary shelter camps in Muzaffarabad, Batagram and Balakot.
Although food supplies are reaching the disaster areas, those active in the sector have reported a need for more local NGO partners to meet the enormous challenge of reaching those affected, particularly in remote locations.
There are numerous health concerns, with diarrhoeal illnesses and respiratory conditions affecting many, as well as the serious problems caused by untreated injuries such as infected open fractures.
Some two million people are without safe drinking water or sanitation facilities, which will affect the health of the survivors.
Coordination of the humanitarian response with the government and military, particularly with regard to logistics, will be much aided by the provision of a liaison officer to the emergency response centre in Islamabad as of Oct 17.
This was decided by the federal emergency commissioner at the request of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator. Another team was deployed in Mansehra on Sunday in addition to the team currently strengthening the UN disaster and assessment field coordination cell in Muzaffarabad. –AFP/APP/Online
