Shortages hurt quake relief

Shelter: The UN High Commission for Refugees has distributed 19,356 tents, enough to shelter an estimated 115,000 (based on estimates of 6 people per tent); and it is managing 20 camps in the disaster zone, assisting more than 25,000 people. But money is critically short: Of the $18 million requested to keep operations moving for the first two months, UNHCR has only received $8.6 million by Week 6.

Water and sanitation: UNICEF is supplying clean drinking water to 500,000 people, latrines or sewage removal for 80,000 people, and soap and hygiene education for 120,000 people. But difficult terrain has hampered efforts. More than 1.8 million people in rural areas may have been living without safe drinking water for more than a month.

Haoliang Xu, country director of the UN Development Program, the agency in charge of early recovery and long-term reconstruction, says the Pakistan earthquake is a much more difficult problem to overcome than the Dec. 26 tsunami.

"There is very difficult terrain here, and in the tsunami you get 100 percent of what you ask for," says Mr. Xu.

Money is clearly an issue, he says, especially now that UN agencies are borrowing against their own long-term programs to pay for the current emergency. "In Pakistan, there are 40 million poor people, roughly 30 percent of the population, but only 3 percent of the population was affected by the earthquake," he says. "So where is my priority?"

• Money: A UN "flash appeal" on Oct. 26 asked for $550 million. Only $119 million has been received so far.

• Food: 1.7 million people have received food rations, and the UN plans to provide food for 600,000 people accessible by road. The UN is also pre-positioning food supplies for 200,000 people for winter months, when many roads may be impassable.

• Shelter: An estimated 500,000 tents are needed to shelter 2.8 million people. The international community delivered 132,000 tents as of Nov. 8. Pakistan has delivered 241,000 tents.

• Health: 300,000 children have been vaccinated against measles, and 200,000 more vaccinations are planned. While there have been several reported outbreaks of diarrhea and dysentery, the UN says none of these could be termed an "epidemic."

• Water and sanitation: The Muzaffarabad water system has been 90 percent restored with the help of UNICEF, supplemented by mobile water trucks. 25,000 hygiene kits have been given out in camps. Latrines or sewage removal services now reach 80,000 affected people.

• Logistics: 19 helicopters are available to UN operations. The UN plans to deliver 7,500 metric tons of food per month by road, and provide mobile storage units in affected areas.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)

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