Earthquake survivors struggle as winter sets in

TWO months after Pakistan’s killer earthquake, the focus of a huge aid effort is on keeping survivors alive in freezing mountains and preventing disease in crowded tent camps in the valleys.

The October 8 disaster killed more than 73,000 people and left about three million homeless.

With a bitter winter beginning, aid officials say they face a daunting task keeping remote settlements supplied with shelter and food.

“We are facing a humanitarian disaster... we are in a crisis now,” said Darren Boisvert, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Teams from the IOM, which is overseeing efforts to get shelter to homeless survivors, are scouring remote valleys and still finding people in serious need of help, he said.

The IOM said last week that 90% of about 420,000 tents distributed in the disaster zone were too flimsy to withstand the winter and survivors had to reinforce their shelters with corrugated iron and materials salvaged from their ruined homes.

Chief UN humanitarian co-ordinator Jan Vandemoortele said that between 350,000 and 400,000 people could only be reached by helicopter but, for now, sufficient funds were coming in to keep a fleet of scores of aircraft flying.

After an initial slow response to a UN appeal for $500m (e465m) for a six-month emergency operation, $90m came in November, Mr Vandemoortele said.

“If it continues we can be more optimistic but we remain very concerned. It will be a very difficult situation,” he told Reuters. “We need $50m to $60m a month. The biggest budget is flying helicopters.”

The most important supplies for survivors were food and material to help them keep warm.

“There’s always a need for iron sheets because the tents will be damaged and collapse under the snow,” Vandemoortele said.

Authorities are hoping people living at about 5,000 feet will come down to camps on valley floors for the winter but many have chosen to stay on their land with their livestock.

Hundreds of thousands of people are living in flimsy tents next to the ruins of their houses across the region while about 250,000 have moved into tent camps that have sprung up in towns and along main roads.

While the main worry is disease killing off cold, hungry survivors, seven members of the same family, including four children, were killed on Tuesday night when fire engulfed the tent they were sleeping in beside their ruined home.