UNHCR Braces For Exodus Of Mountain-Dwellers Who Survived SAsia Quake

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Pakistani earthquake survivors walk near earthquake-damaged houses in the country's northwestern remote village of Pushto, 06 December 2005. Aid workers were immunising children in earthquake-ravaged Pakistan after a number of measles cases were detected at a survivors' camp, officials said. AFP photo by Farooq Naeem.

Geneva, Switzerland (AFP) Dec 06, 2005
The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday said it was standing by for an exodus of mountain-dwellers who survived the South Asian earthquake but are facing increasingly bitter winter weather.

Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that with more heavy snowfalls forecast by the end of this week, Pakistan's government estimates that between 100,000 and 200,000 people could head down to lower-lying areas in the country's North West Frontier Province and 30,000 in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan bore the brunt of the October 8 earthquake, which killed 73,000 people there. Another 1,300 died in India.

Aid efforts are now focusing on the 3.5 million people left homeless, many living in tents not designed for freezing conditions or stuck in isolated areas that are hard for aid agencies to reach.

Last week, the UN warned that efforts to shelter survivors from the Himalayan winter were on a knife's edge.

Pagonis said the UNHCR's top priority is "winterising" tents in camps, providing survivors with three blankets each, plus extra mattresses and plastic sheeting, as well as stoves and fuel.

She said the agency is tapping the knowledge of Afghan refugees, many of whom have lived in camps in Pakistan for two decades after fleeing conflict in their homeland and have learned to cope as winter bites.

Separately, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said some mountain-dwellers are still reluctant to come down to the valleys, even though it is becoming increasingly difficult to get aid to them.

IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said the agency sent teams to remote areas to find out why survivors wanted to stay.

Many people said they would remain as long as they continued to receive food and shelter material. They also expressed concerns about land rights, losing their livestock, and lack of money to make the trip, Pandya said.

Source: Agence France-Presse

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

UN Warns Kashmir Quake Aid Efforts On Knife's Edge

by Danny Kemp
Islamabad (AFP) Dec 02, 2005
Eight weeks after the South Asian earthquake, efforts to shelter thousands of Kashmiri survivors from the killer Himalayan winter are on a knife's edge, the United Nations said Friday.

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