Situation and Response to aid promises

The response of the donors and the countries that had promised to give aid, donations and loans in response to the appeals of the United Nations and the government of Pakistan has been dismal. This situation may hamper the rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the earthquake hit areas in Azad Kashmir and Hazara Division. With the continued harsh winter, the earthquake survivors are awaiting another disaster in July when more landslides are expected due to monsoons.

Commenting on this situation, the United Nations says it will be forced to drastically scale down life-saving aid flights in earthquake-hit Pakistan if it does not get fresh donations within a month. In such a situation, survivors may not be able to rebuild their lives and will be vulnerable to any new tremors if helicopters ferrying vital food and shelter are reduced, said UN World Food Programme (WFP) regional director Amir Abdulla. "What we will do (if flights are scaled back) is set back people's recovery. People will lose more than they have already," Abdulla told a news agency as he visited the snowbound northern village of Pitch Bala during a helicopter tour of the quake zone.

"If you don't help people recover they might not be able to eke out an existence, and if you get another shock many, many more people will die."

Funding for the UN's fleet of 20 aid helicopters runs out at the end of February and it will need 11 million dollars a month in March, April and possibly May, Abdulla said. It will then need six to seven million dollars a month for the rest of the year to keep them airborne, although the figure could rise in July if landslides caused by monsoon rains wipe out key roads, as geologists fear. Abdulla said there was an increased sense of optimism in the aid community but warned survivors were "not out of the woods yet". "The major challenge over the next few months, and the months after that, is maintaining not so much the donor interest as the donor will, or donor ability, to fund what needs to be done," the WFP official said.

Actionaid"s Emergency and Reconstruction Project

The ERP team's race against the harsh winter continued in all the four focus regions.  In addition to provision of shelters to protect them from the harsh winters, quilts, food items, room heaters cum stoves and household non food items were procured and distributed on a need basis. 

Earthquake resistant structures:

Through a rapid assessment of potential shelter options with the support of the community, temporary structures were designed keeping in mind the harsh winter. Technical support was also sought from engineers in all four targeted districts to ensure that the structures met the basic earthquake resistant standards. The approach followed was to actively involve the community in the process and also ensure that they learn the basics of earthquake resistant construction. Material such as wooden poles and beams were retrieved mainly from collapsed houses so that the effort is sustainable and does not create a dependency syndrome in the people affected by the earthquake.

The community also contributed towards insulating the shelters and this came in form of old blankets, sheets recovered from the household rubble and dried grass and/or hay for the floor. The project then provided each household with adequate number of corrugated galvanized metal sheets for the sides and a technical pack including basic construction tools, nails etc.  A total of 845 temporary shelters have been completed.  Room heaters cum stoves distributed among 620 households and Kitchen sets among 749 in both Hazara and AJK.  Quilts (3000) and Beddings for more than 1500 families have been procured and are in the process of being distributed.

Community shelters/centres for socialization and psychosocial care: Preliminary work has started around the construction of 20 community shelters/centres. The primary motive behind these shelters is to provide a space to women outside their homes where they can gather and discuss their issues. These centers will be used as a hub through which psychosocial support, health and income-generations activities will be carried out. AA-ERP is also planning the repair of 40 schools in the affected communities in the second quarter of the project.

In order to address the psychosocial needs of the affected communities, some relevant organizations and individuals are being contacted so that they can present their overall approach to it. Psychosocial support will take place through the community centers once these have been set up. In some areas of the ERP project, comprehensive data is being collected on disability issues.

Policy Work: Progress made under policy work includes some important initiatives with partners. Actionaid-ERP has signed a contract with Human Resources Development Network (HRDN), to conduct a conference on Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in Developing Countries. The main aim of this conference will be to raise the levels of knowledge about emergency preparedness and mitigation through discussions and lessons learnt from other regions in order to influence public policy for disaster mitigation. An important feature of this conference is the pre-conference dialogues at the district level with key stakeholders that will inform discussions during the conference. The basic aim of this will be to develop integrated disaster preparedness and mitigation approach through critical analyses of the current and previous disaster responses and experiences from other countries.  A policy document will be developed to influence the government of Pakistan.

In addition, ERP is also in the process of finalizing an agreement with Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on certain key areas such as provision of training and capacity-building for the field teams, assessing the impact of AA-ERP's work, identifying emerging policy issues that would have a bearing on the outcome of the rehabilitation and reconstruction process. It is expected that some of the core issues would pertain to population displacement, compensation, ownership rights, and public interest litigation.

Gender Strategy: Since a focus on gender issues is an integral part of the project, preliminary discussions are underway with Shirkat Gah, womens rights NGO based in Lahore, to conduct a research on emerging gender issues in post disaster work.

A gender strategy has been drafted and shared with important and relevant people.  Under this a forum on emerging gender issues will be linked to the Citizen's Commission on Relief and Rehabilitation to promote and highlight important issues.

Coordination:

Coordination with agencies and organizations has increased both at the field and head office level. Actionaid staff is regularly interacting with organizations at the field level so as to provide maximum benefit to the local populace. At Islamabad level Actionaid is participating in meetings so as to keep abreast of the major emerging issues linked to earthquake situation and also raise some important issues particularly at the government level.

Emerging Issues

The speed and tempo of the relief work in the earthquake affected areas is of concern for the local communities. There is either over concentration of relief work in some areas and scattered in others. The attention of aid agencies, government and media is waning as other political considerations both national and international come to the forefront.

At the operational level it is felt that most organizations and even the government are focusing on people situated above 5000ft. The populations below that level are therefore in a precarious condition. Recognizing the problems faced by the affected population living at lower altitudes, the ERP has primarily focused its outreach in these areas except Batagram.

There continues to be pressure on relief organizations to work in areas dictated by the military and the politicians. State compensation to affectees remains a major issue. Many people have not been compensated as they were not identified in the initial assessment by the military and civil administration. Influence of the politicians and military is evident at the field level. There are reports of rampant corruption in the compensation distribution.  Some people are reported to have complained that families who receive Rs. 25,000 were made to pay Rs. 5,000 to the army personnel or others who have been leading the distribution. 

Further, the people in Manshera have expressed concern over the offer of visas to western countries to affectees on the basis of compensation recipient status which has resulted in families who are not directly affected registering themselves as affectees in collusion with the concerned officials to obtain the compensation recipient status. Land ownership rights and contending with local power structures remain a challenge as the ERP plans for the next phase of reconstruction sometimes in spring this year.