ACT Dateline

South Asia/Pakistan 0405

Badly needed shelter material on its way to Pakistan

By Arne Grieg Riisnæs, Norwegian Church Aid/ACT

Balakot Province, Pakistan, October 18, 2005--Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is supporting the relief efforts of Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) in responding to the critical needs of survivors of the massive October 8 earthquake. NCA and CWS (P/A) are members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International. Tents for 6,000 people and 10,500 blankets have been sent from NCA’s emergency stores in Oslo and Kabul in Afghanistan. NCA-ACT is planning another airlift this week with more tents and blankets and additional equipment for producing clean water.

In the last few days, government officials have announced a sharply increased death toll from the quake, but even so, some non-governmental organizations in Islamabad believe that many more than 50,000 people have been killed. The number of casualties is at least 65,000, whereas an unbelievable number of more than 2 million people are homeless.

A week after the disaster, 20 percent of the affected areas still had received no aid at all. A large number of survivors live in areas that cannot be reached, and so far there have been too few helicopters to cover the enormous need for transportation and evacuation of injured people.

On each passing day, people are dying from lack of medical assistance and medicines. Bodies are left in the ruins, under the masses of clay, or covered by dirty sheets on the pavement. And even if not visible, the stench of dead bodies gives a constant reminder of the magnitude of this disaster.

Need for shelter

NCA and CWS (P/A) staff who were part of an assessment team sent to the affected areas in the days after the earthquake saw first-hand the enormous need for tents, especially in the mountain areas, where nights are getting cold and winter is approaching.

“Even though we have very little food and the water is dirty from the mud after the earthquake, we do manage. What we need are tents. Without tents and blankets, we will freeze to death,” said Fazi Akbar, from the province of Balakot.

Water and sanitation

“This disaster is so extensive that we need to look a lot further than mere emergency aid,” said Arne Sæveraas, head of NCA’s West and Central Asia division, during a visit to the area.

“During this first week, the need for long-term aid has become evident, and water is our main priority. We are starting to get an overview, and as soon as possible we will start water and sanitation projects in many of the most exposed areas,” Sæveraas explained.