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News - Pakistan quake: 18 months on

05 Apr 2007 11:29:00 GMT
Source: British Red Cross Society - UK

Background

• Pakistan/India earthquake

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Until last month, survivors of the October 2005 Pakistan earthquake were still receiving relief supplies from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

It marked the end of the latest relief phase to address the needs of more than 94,000 vulnerable people during the winter in remote, snow-laden areas of North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.The British Red Cross through the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) contributed £551,000 to this operation, providing thermal blankets, stoves, construction kits and iron sheets to improve shelter.

The earthquake was one of the deadliest and most destructive on record in South Asia. The Pakistan government estimates 73,000 people lost their lives and 128,000 were injured in the country. More than 3.5 million people were made homeless.

There are huge unmet needs in this area, but this was the case even before the quake.

Fiona McSheehy, British Red CrossThe Movement has helped more than one million people since the disaster.

Eighteen months on, the British Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies can now turn its full attention to the recovery and rehabilitation of Pakistan's quake-affected areas.

An assessment team led by Fiona McSheehy has just returned from North West Frontier Province where it examined the prospect of developing a two-year programme in two districts.

Isolated

"There are huge unmet needs in this area, but this was the case even before the quake," Fiona said. "There is very little infrastructure, the people are very isolated. They are incredibly poor, with few health clinics and limited electricity and water supply."

The programme is expected to work with the communities to reduce their vulnerability.

"A lot of villagers put grass on their roofs held down with boulders," Fiona explained. "These then collapsed on people during the quake. We can teach people better methods on insulating their homes that don't present a risk."

The British Red Cross has also been supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross' health project in Kashmir. Dr Fiona O'Sullivan recently returned from working in a health clinic in Pattika where many facilities had been destroyed.

"It was clear that much of the gap in the health services existed pre-earthquake, but the quake certainly impacted further on this gap and on poor living conditions," she said.

Information sheet on quake

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Thu Apr 5 11:02:59 2007