MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 14: The United Nations will this week launch a major air operation to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan’s mountains in frantic bid to beat the problems of winter. Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tons of supplies a day into the mountains from Tuesday for five days, said senior UN official Pat Duggan.
“The deliveries are gearing up now,” Mr Duggan told Reuters in Muzaffarabad on Monday.
“The real priority is the highlands. The aim is to get their food and shelter needs in as fast as we possibly can before winter sets in and then avoid a flow of people down the hill.”
The United Nations and other relief agencies say communities need shelter and food supplies to get them through the winter by the start of December when winter weather is expected to close in, severely hampering both road and air transport.
The most pressing problem area is the Neelum Valley, to the northeast of Muzaffarabad, where the sole road up the steep-sided valley has been swept away by landslides triggered by the quake. It is not expected to be rebuilt before winter.
The valley, with a population of about 150,000 people, will be the focus of this week’s airlift, being organised with the help of the Pakistani military, which Duggan said would give the aid effort a big boost.
“We’ve got an extra resource. We’ve got the Chinooks from the British government to work solid while the rest of the operation is still going on.
“The idea is to have pre-positioning of food as close as possible to them and pre-position some shelter as well. That will keep them more or less in their area and stop a flow down to Muzaffarabad,” she said.
SICKNESS SPREADS: The other big worry is sickness spreading in crowded tent settlements that have sprung up in the weeks following the quake.
“The target is to immunise 800,000 children. We want to vaccinate them in the next two weeks’, weather permitting, before people get into close quarters in camps,” Dr Taimur Mueenuddin, in charge of health issues for Unicef in Muzaffarabad, said.—Reuters
