PESHAWAR: With temperatures dropping since the onset of winter in northern districts of Malakand division, elderly Siraj does not know how he and his family will cope with snowfall and downpour.

“Some people have received tents, but others have not. Blankets have not arrived yet. Whatever we had lies buried under rubble,” the 58-year-old mine worker from Shangla’s Mali Baba area said. “And the tents we have received are neither waterproof nor can they take the load of snowfall.”

Siraj is one of thousands of people affected by the devastating earthquake that hit parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week. The province’s northern districts of Chitral, Shangla and Lower Dir were the worst affected, where people, mostly living in remote, inaccessible areas, are bracing for the first snowfall after the tragedy.

Also read: Govt vows to help quake survivors rebuild before winter

Locals say that the hills have already received the winter’s first snowfall, followed by intermittent rain, thus bringing down temperatures to add to their plight worsened by the lack of proper shelter in the chilly weather.

The hills have already received the season’s first snowfall followed by intermittent rain, bringing down temperatures

The bad news is that helicopters engaged in relief operations have been grounded since Monday because of inclement weather in Chitral, Shangla and other areas of Malakand division. The district administration in Chitral and Shangla has sent an SOS message to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PMDA) in Peshawar and asked for immediate supply of winterised tents. The PDMA is relying on one MI-17 helicopter provided by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

“The PDMA has received a request from the deputy commissioners of Shangla and Chitral to send double-ply tents,” the authority spokesman Latifur Rehman said. “Certainly affected people need tents and blankets in hilly areas.”

He said that a truck carrying winterised tents to Chitral had been stranded at Lowari Tunnel because of bad weather.

“Suppose the tents reach Chitral’s district headquarters by Wednesday, even then taking the stock to the high altitude areas is very, very difficult task,” he said, adding that helicopter service could not start till weather was cleared.

The spokesman said that double-ply tents would not be able to sustain the load of snowfall.

Nine days have passed since the 8.1-magnitude quake rocked upper parts of KP. But the PDMA and the disaster management bodies at the district level have been unable to reach affected people in high altitude areas of Upper Dir, Kohistan, Chitral and Shangla. Thousands of affected people are still without shelter.

Mushtaq Ghani, special assistant to the chief minister, told a press conference that the quake had damaged 42,722 houses. He said that 19,192 tents, 27,667 blankets, 1,750 mattress, 8,700 food packets, 1,000 bags of flour, 11,000 tarpaulins and 11 generators had been distributed among affected people so far.

“Rescue and relief teams have yet to cover 15 per cent of the affected areas because of tough terrain,” Ghani admitted and said that teams of army, the NDMA and the PDMAs of KP and Punjab were carrying out relief and rescue operations in hilly areas of Malakand. Compensation is being distributed among affected people and a survey of damage will be conducted soon.

QUESTIONS ABOUT PDMA: The delay in providing relief to disaster-stricken people has left a question mark on the performance of the PDMA of KP which failed to ensure availability of sufficient stock of tents and other relief goods in hilly areas like Chitral, Shangla and Kohistan.

Sources said that the NDMA had dispatched relief items in three C-130 planes and the PDMA of Punjab had sent four truckloads to Chitral, but the response of the KP PDMA was “very slow” and affected people urgently required winterised tents, double-ply blankets and warm clothes, particularly for children.

They said that tents and blankets provided by the PDMA were very thin and they could not protect people in areas where temperature had fallen below the freezing point.

“Only 500 tents are stored at a warehouse in Chitral while thousands of people throng the office of the deputy commissioner on daily basis in quest of relief goods,” said an official.

“Please don’t compare Dera Ismail Khan with Chitral or Shangla. A truck reaches Chitral from Peshawar in 24 hours. The PDMA should have kept a sufficient stock of relief items in Chitral as it is prone to natural disasters,” he said.

The PDMA’s spokesman, Latifur Rehman, said that the government was considering evacuating affected families from inaccessible areas of Chitral and other high altitude areas of Malakand division by helicopters and housing them in government school buildings in low-lying areas. “The only option is to relocate these families to schools.”

The situation in Shangla also is terrible as a large number of people are looking for tents and blankets. The relief operation is going very slow and the district authorities have distributed 2,500 tents while, according to an official survey, around 6,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged by the quake.

Major Mudasir, who is leading relief operation in the district, said that the houses were unfit for shelter.

Snowfall and rain have started in most parts of Upper Dir, particularly in affected areas. After snowfall and rain, weather has become extremely cold.

“Spending the night in the crippling cold in tents is almost impossible for affected people,” said a local man.

He said that rainwater had entered their tents, rendering them unfit for habitation. “It is impossible for a family comprising 12 to 20 members to live in a single tent,” said Sirajuddin, a resident of Manzai area.

He said that children, the elderly, the injured and women were facing difficulties because of shortage of blankets, warm clothes and fire arrangement.

The people of affected areas fear that they may have to face another tragedy after the devastating earthquake if the government does not provide them food and other relief items immediately.

Our correspondents Khalid Khan from Shangla, Zahiruddin from Chitral and Zahid Jan from Upper Dir contributed to this report.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2015

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