Pakistani quake relief one of world’s toughest challenges ever – UN agency head

With an estimated 3.3 million people left homeless by the earthquake that devastated remote areas of northern Pakistan, the logistical challenge of bringing in desperately needed aid is one of the toughest the world has ever faced, and time is running out, the head of the United Nations food agency warned today.

“At the best of times this is very difficult terrain, but with landslides blocking roads, plus the onset of winter, getting to these people is taking far longer. And there is very little time left,” World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris said.

Speaking in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, he said that due to a combination of factors, including difficult access, high altitudes and appalling weather conditions, aid agencies were struggling to bring relief to the region.

“We have been presented with a huge and complex logistical challenge – one of the toughest we've ever faced,” he added of the relief efforts for the 8 October quake which killed at least 40,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and injured more than 65,000 others.

Temperatures have been falling to below freezing and hypothermia is becoming a risk to thousands of people sheltering under plastic sheeting. Large numbers of injured have been coming down from the mountains on foot and there are many cases of gangrene among them.

“The aid agencies have managed to give some help to hundreds of thousands of people, but there are an estimated half a million more people out there in desperate need, who no one has managed to reach,” Mr. Morris said. "People don't just need food – first of all they need shelter, blankets and medical assistance – then food and clean water.”

OCHA estimated that around 20 per cent of affected areas have not yet been reached. There is still a huge need for winterized tents, especially since the local supply is exhausted and some supplies are unsuitable for the terrain and climate, it said, noting that among the millions needing immediate shelter and medical aid are an estimated 1 million children.

In the race to bring in aid the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that three cargo flights arrived overnight in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, from Dubai and Jordan, and a fourth was in the air, part of an airlift of hundreds of tons of UNHCR relief supplies, including thousands of urgently needed tents.

In addition, a joint UNHCR-WFP 47-truck convoy carrying 1,500 10-person tents, 50,000 plastic sheets, 20,000 blankets and 10,000 jerry cans from agency warehouses in Kabul, the Afghan capital, arrived last night in Peshawar, north western Pakistan.

With the help of Turkey and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), UNHCR is preparing to rush a further 860 tons of supplies form its warehouse in the Turkish port of Iskenderun.

Meanwhile the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned against the potential exploitation of child quake survivors, calling for the registration of all children at the time they are admitted to a public or private hospital following reports of children being taken from health facilities by individuals or non-government organizations (NGOs), claiming to be able to look after them.

“While in this difficult period following the devastating disaster which has hit Pakistan there are certainly many people acting out of the best intentions towards vulnerable children, there is also the possibility children could fall into the hands of unscrupulous individuals or groups,” the agency said in a statement.

It added that children must not be discharged unless they leave in the company of genuine family members and called on the government to place Child Protection Officers in all major hospitals admitting child patients.