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Exactly a year after the devastating earthquake in parts of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, aid agencies warn of problems this winter for the thousands of people who still live in makeshift shelters
Close to 2 million people living in makeshift shelters and tents are at risk from the harsh Himalayan winter, one year after a massive earthquake ravaged parts of northern Pakistan, says the international aid agency Oxfam in a new report.
The report calls the recovery progress "patchy" and the pace of construction of housing and infrastructure "slow" and compounded by administrative problems and corruption.
The 7.6 magnitude quake that shook the region on October 8, 2005, killed more than 73,000 people in northern Pakistan and 1,500 people in Jammu and Kashmir. It rendered around 3 million people homeless. "A recent Oxfam survey of 17 earthquake-hit villages found that virtually all those who were living in tents lacked adequate protection against winter weather," the aid agency said in a statement on October 4, adding that 1.8 million quake-affected people were at risk.
Before last winter, relief agencies had feared a second wave of deaths from cold and sickness among survivors living in makeshift shelters and unsanitary camps. But, mercifully, the winter was mild. Relief agencies fear the winter won't be as kind a second year running. "With snow already falling, this winter seems to have arrived early," says Farhana Faruqi Stocker of Oxfam International.
Among the host of problems facing relief organizations, perhaps the most difficult is determining the exact number of vulnerable people to plan proper relief activities. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and their local affiliates believe 66,000 families (with an average family comprising six members) living in temporary shelters are at risk, a number considerably less than that given by Oxfam.
Source: www.alertnet.org, October 4,
2006
www.oxfam.org, October 4, 2006
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