By Athar Hussain
KARACHI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Pakistani tent makers said on Friday they are struggling to meet a government demand for 8,000 tents a day to shelter some two million survivors of the Oct. 8 earthquake before winter sets in.
Hundreds of thousands of tents able to withstand a Himalayan winter are needed for survivors of the quake that devastated northern Pakistan and killed about 50,000 people, aid officials say. About 1,300 people were killed in neighbouring India.
International aid groups are scouring the world for tents.
The U.N. refugee agency is airlifting 30,000 tents to Pakistan and international Red Cross agencies are sending another 53,000, but that's it for global supplies, the United Nations says.
"It's still a drop in the ocean," U.N. coordinator Jesper Lund said of the 83,000 tents in the pipeline.
"We need hundreds of thousands - at least 450,000, but that's only a rough estimate," he said.
To try to fill the gap the Pakistani government has ordered tent makers onto a war footing, demanding 8,000 tents a day and banning their export and domestic sales.
But Pakistani tent makers say it's going to be impossible to meet that target.
"The problem is that all the tent manufacturing units in Pakistan cannot produce more than 5,000 tents a day," said M.J. Aftab of the Sheikh Nooruddin manufacturing company.
Pakistan has about 110 manufacturing units, most of them in the main textile cities of Karachi and Lahore, according to the secretary of the country's tent makers and exporters association, Nisar Ahmed.
"EXPLOITING THE DISASTER"
Aftab, whose company has in the past supplied nearly 200,000 tents to the United Nations and other aid agencies for refugees in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the government needed to control rising cost of raw materials and ensure their smooth supply.
Before the earthquake, according to another manufacturer, Sheikh Tajammul, an ounce of quality canvas that cost 1.75 rupees is now being sold for 3.25 rupees.
"Some people are trying to exploit this urgent situation and the plight of the earthquake survivors. If we don't get controlled-price raw materials than it's difficult to meet the government demand," Tajammul said.
Ahmed said another problem was that the price the government will pay tent makers was too low, and the government was demanding better quality tents, able to shelter families from a bitter winter only weeks away.
"Normally, the tents we make are meant for normal use and cost around 3,200 rupees ($52). But the government has asked us to make tents with thicker, water-proof canvas material with double flys and iron beam support."
"These tents which can stand up to the harsh weather in the northern areas are expensive and cost more than our normal price," he said.
According to the tent makers' association, the wholesale price of quality tents is around 6,500 rupees ($110) while the government is only offering 4,500 rupees ($75).
But Ahmed said despite the problems, Pakistani makers were striving to meet needs.
"Despite the price and raw material problems, we've started manufacturing tents on a daily basis to meet urgent requirements," he said.
Quake survivors in the Indian part of Kashmir are also facing an acute shortage of tents.
The region needed 30,000 tents but only 13,000 had been distributed, Indian Kashmir's most senior bureaucrat, Vijay Bakaya, told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in MUZAFFARABAD, Sheikh Mushtaq in SRINAGAR, India)