ISLAMABAD, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Pakistan's flood-affected Balochistan Province have strongly criticised the government over the lack of adequate emergency shelter being provided to victims of cyclone Yemyin, over a month after the disaster.
An estimated 2.5 million people were affected by flooding after four days of heavy rain in Balochistan and neighbouring Sindh province, leaving almost 300 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), of the 80,000 homes destroyed in the disaster, nearly 60,000 were in Balochistan alone, where some 15 districts were badly or severely affected.
"Most of the affected population are still living in the open air and are without emergency shelter, with temperatures outside reaching well beyond 50 degrees Celcius," Mukhtiar Chhalgari, regional head of the Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) NGO in Quetta, Balochistan's provincial capital, said.
"The shelter situation is not under control and neither the government, nor the international community is acknowledging this," Chhalgari said.
According to SPO, in just five of Balochistan's flood-affected districts, including Bolan, Jhalmagsi, Nasir Abad, Jafferabad, as well as parts of Sibi, 11,490 families were without emergency shelter, with just 3,500 tents distributed to date.
In Nasir Abad, 52,000 people were affected and just 550 tents were distributed, while in Jafferabad which has an affected population of 60,000, only 900 tents had been distributed, Chhalgari elaborated.
On 27 July, a report by Pakistan's Rural Development Policy Institute (RDPI) described the government's relief response, more than one month after the cyclone, as ineffective, insufficient and slow.
Using data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), an RDPI audit concluded that after the government's distribution of 46,500 tents so far, 35 percent of the affected population in Balochistan and 55 percent in Sindh remained uncovered - a claim drawing a harsh rebuke from the government.
Government body rejects allegations
"I wouldn't consider them [RDPI] a very credible source of information," Zubair Murshed, NDMA's national disaster reduction adviser in Islamabad, told IRIN. He said another 100,000 tents had been purchased, with more than half already distributed.
"We may not have reached 100 percent of the communities, but saying what they are saying is not an accurate statement either," Murshed said, estimating that the tents had reached between 70 and 80 percent of the affected population, with the rest on the way.
Whatever the truth, specialists say relief and recovery efforts must now work side by side in the coming months.
"Anyone who believes the relief phase is over - whether it be the government or international community - is misinformed," Nadir Gul Barech, chief executive officer of the Balochistan Rural Support Programme, another local NGO in Quetta, told IRIN.
Information gap
But in Balochistan, a vast, thinly populated province of eight million inhabitants, an information gap of sorts as to the sheer magnitude of the disaster, including the issue of shelter, clearly exists, with many aid workers complaining of travel restrictions to the affected area.
Adding to this is the insistence by NDMA that the situation is firmly under control, with further supplies in the pipeline, coupled with a less than satisfactory response by donors to the UN US$38 million flash appeal launched on 18 July.
"I do not believe that the international humanitarian community has responded to the disaster as it should have," Barech said, noting the lateness in which this specific appeal was made.
"Generally such appeals are made no more than 72 hours after such a disaster. In this case it took nearly two and a half weeks," the NGO official said.
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