Pakistan army helicopters will today begin to airlift IOM tents from Batagram to Alai, a remote district cut off by landslides triggered by the 8 October earthquake.
A Batagram-based IOM team flown into the valley on Sunday in a UHIH helicopter provided by the Japanese Self Defence Force, will take delivery of the first batch of family tents today and will work with the Pakistan military to distribute them immediately.
The operation, scheduled to begin yesterday, was delayed by a series of aftershocks that rocked the area on Sunday night, raising fears of further landslides and the possible need to evacuate up to 190,000 people.
Tehsil Alai, which is a sub-division of Batagram district, has a population of 240,000 spread thinly in 230 villages through mountain valleys at an altitude of over 2000 metres.
According to Pakistan army Lt. Col. Ahmed Zakeer, nearly half the population in Alai have been affected by the quake and an estimated 23,000 tents are needed if they are to survive the winter.
"We have received and distributed just 2,000 tents. We can distribute anything that you can get to us immediately. The need is everywhere," he said.
But aftershocks remain a major obstacle. "Every time they clear the road to Batagram, an aftershock brings down another landslide and blocks it, " says IOM operations officer, Mati Hashemee.
"We can deliver tents by road to Batagram, but there are a limited number of helicopters available and if the weather breaks, they won't be able to fly," he says.
When the IOM team arrived on Sunday, hundreds of villagers lined the perimeter of the makeshift helipad created by the military in Bana village. "They are all waiting for tents or medical assistance," said Lt. Col. Zakeer.
Tents are allocated on the basis of need to people identified by agreement between the military, local leaders and the community. They are set up in 45-tent villages on sites identified by the military as secure and accessible.
A handful of medical teams are now operating in Bana, close to the helipad. Doctors from the French Red Cross and Save the Children provide basic treatment and triage for earthquake victims carried down from the valley on rough stretchers. Japanese and Pakistani military helicopters ferry the most seriously injured to a Japanese field hospital in Batagram or Islamabad, less than an hour away by air.
With IOM trucks now regularly arriving in Batagram, IOM logistics staff are dividing shipments between items earmarked for airlift to Alai and items for distribution to neighbouring valleys also cut off by landslides.
Over the past two days the team has distributed more than 100 tents and 600 mattresses to villagers in Kotgala. The village is cut off by landslides and the items are handed over at a meeting point on the road. Villagers carry the items the remaining two kilometres back. Another 30 tents were delivered to Thakot village yesterday and today another 50 tents will be delivered to Peshora, 10 kms from Batagram.
The UN emergency shelter cluster, which is coordinated by IOM, believes that Pakistan now needs between 150,000 and 200,000 tents, in addition to 200,000 already delivered and 200,000 already ordered to shelter earthquake victims before the onset of snow and freezing weather next month.
IOM has distributed some 1,600 tents to date. It will receive and distribute another 3,000 in the course of this week. It currently has some 7,000 tents ordered and scheduled for delivery within the next three weeks. Blankets, mattresses and beds have also been distributed in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Batagram with more on order for delivery. Shelter materials will also be delivered to help people rebuild their homes.
For further information, please contact Chris Lom at IOM Islamabad. Email: clom@iom.int. Tel. +92.300.8560341 (mobile) or +882.1689804171.