ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday said that the biggest challenge the government was facing one week after the devastating earthquake was providing shelter to millions of victims.

“The number one priority is shelter and tents, tents, tents,” he emphasized while briefing journalists on relief efforts at the PM House. He said shelter was a major concern, particularly in the wake of the snowfall received by the Northern Areas in the past 48 hours.

Mr Aziz said plans were under way to set up tent villages in and around the affected areas or other districts, including Haripur and Attock. These villages would also have health and school facilities, he added.

Noting that Pakistan was a major tent producer, he said the government had told manufacturers to forget about the export orders for the moment. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees would house half a million people in time, he added.

When asked if these tent villages would be sufficient in the harsh weather conditions, the prime minister said people would be encouraged to come down from mountainous areas. He said many people did not want to leave their areas because their homes and valuable were there.

While the assessment of the damage and cost of reconstruction was still being done, the prime minister said the cost of infrastructure could be around $5 billion.

Commenting on the 10-year timeline given by the UN for the reconstruction process to complete, he said: “We think it can be done faster than that.” His assessment was that it could be possible within five years to provide “even better (infrastructure) than what they had before”.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that many people were desperate to come down but were stranded for want of transportation, Mr Aziz said they were used to walking down. Later, he conceded that ferrying the people was one of the challenges the government was facing and said that 500 vehicles had been hired for the purpose.

He said the government had so far provided 18,000 tents and 110,000 blankets to victims and added that relief efforts that had initially been focusing on towns were now zeroing in on outlying areas and villages.

He pointed out that a serious problem to deal with was the trauma of the affected and said the government would be getting counsellors for the purpose. He said the rescue operation was almost over in most areas and now the rubble was being cleared.

The sites were being sprayed to avoid epidemic of disease. “We have a lot more to do in the next stage.”

Giving an update on the largely airborne relief and rescue efforts in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir, he said that on Friday alone 310 sorties were done by 58 helicopters — 18 foreign and 40 local. He said 24 more helicopters were on their way to Islamabad from the United States and Japan.

Referring to the assistance coming in from all directions, he said the government was trying to streamline it. To date, he pointed out, total pledges stood at Rs3 billion domestically and half a billion dollars internationally. “But they are growing by the day,” he added.

Prime Minister Aziz asserted that the government was getting more organized with the passing of each day. He announced that from Sunday onwards the government would be issuing a daily location-wise report on shortages of relief articles to guide aid agencies.

Explaining the delayed response to the catastrophe, he said almost the entire civil administration in Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas collapsed when the quake struck.

“There was a total collapse of the local government system because of the calamity, and communication links were severed,” he said.

He pointed out that 500 troops lost their lives in Azad Kashmir and there were no troops in the NWFP at that time.

The premier did not agree that the calamity would have an economic setback, saying it would not affect the government’s reform agenda though it might slow the economic activity a bit.

He expressed the confidence that donor support would continue, saying: “The pledges we have got are encouraging and Pakistan has the capacity to get soft loans.”

He, however, said that like other major natural disasters the Oct 8 quake would constrain and hurt certain industries and boost other sectors like cement and construction.

Answering a question, he said the International Donor Conference was expected in Geneva within a week.