WASHINGTON, Dec 14: The Washington Post and the Voice of America (VoA) have detailed the relief and rehabilitation work under way in earthquake stricken areas of Pakistan and the need for shelter and funds.
In the Post’s report headlined ‘A race to help in Kashmir’s mountains’, John Lancaster tells how Isabelle Giasson and Daniel Desmarais, newly-weds, have camped in a remote earthquake-ravaged valley, distributing aid to 13 villages that can be reached only by helicopter or on foot — and they have done it for almost three weeks.
The mountaineers, the French Canadian couple, is racing the approaching winter to help more than 7,000 people, “often trekking for hours each day to check on their condition”.
They met 10 months ago and married in August, Isabelle and Daniel have given out thousands of blankets and plastic tarpaulins and recently joined forces with a Pakistani army team to distribute metal sheets for shelters.
The report says, although the world responded slowly to the disaster, the relief operation in recent weeks has benefited from increased foreign funding as well as unseasonably good weather that has enabled helicopters to keep flying supplies into high valleys.
“Aid officials say that as a result, they have yet to see evidence of a significant spike in deaths from hunger, disease or hypothermia, although they caution that the situation for survivors could deteriorate rapidly with worsening weather or any ebbing in aid commitments.”
In November, UN agencies received about $90 million in earthquake-relief funds; they will require $50 to $60 million per month to maintain aid operations through the winter, according to Jan Vandemoortele, the chief UN humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan.
“I would say we have made good progress,” Mr Vandemoortele said in an interview on Thursday. “The glass is definitely half-full — it’s not half-empty — but we are still worried because the weather is the big unknown factor and we are not sure how people will be able to cope.”
