ISLAMABAD, 27 November (IRIN) - The International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), together with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), is ready to start distribution of transitional shelter kits to some 13,500 families affected by
last year's massive earthquake in northern Pakistan. The distribution, originally scheduled for mid-November, has been delayed by 15 days, due to a variety of logistical constraints in procuring
relief supplies, IFRC officials said. "The main items [of relief supplies], including tents, had to be brought from abroad, which needs official permission…. Last year, immediately after the
earthquake, several rules were relaxed but this time it took a longer time to get a no objection certificate from the authorities, which ultimately delayed our implementation," Asar-ul-Haq, manager of
the IFRC's Disaster Management Programme, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The IFRC/PRCS hopes to assist some 10,000 families in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and another 3,500 in
Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The aid agencies' assistance package would provide vulnerable families with a shelter repair tool kit, corrugated iron sheets, tarpaulins, quilts, a hurricane lamp and
wood burning stove. More than 75,000 people died and another 3.5 million were rendered homeless when a devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake ripped through parts of northern Pakistan on 8 October
last year. Housing suffered extensive damage in the quake. Some 600,000 rural and 30,000 urban dwellings were affected in mountainous terrain stretching across 30,000 sq km.Nearly 2 million quake
survivors were forced to live in tents and makeshift shelters throughout last winter, battling the harsh weather.Only an estimated one in four quake survivors have so far started rebuilding their
destroyed houses. Tens of thousands are still living in makeshift shelters and will need support to survive a second Himalayan winter. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Earthquake Reconstruction and
Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) has appealed to NGOs and aid agencies to assist quake-affected people in getting access to cheap construction materials."Access to quality construction material at
affordable rates in remote mountainous locations is essential for early reconstruction of houses in the affected areas. A combination of poor road conditions, shortage of appropriate transport and
distance from material supply heads is making it difficult for people in remote villages to have access to construction material at fair prices," ERRA said in a statement. Aid agencies are being
asked to help by improving village access roads and tracks, providing transport and by establishing mini-material hubs, the authority said. To further facilitate access to remote communities, the
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), based in Islamabad, has this week started helicopter operations across quake-affected areas in NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "Currently,
we are flying two [passenger] flights a week, while cargo flights have not yet started," Rod Penhall, UNHAS's Chief Air Transport Officer for the quake region, told IRIN in Islamabad. UNHAS is a
non-profit service, which operates under the stewardship of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). During its three-month winter operation, between November to the end of January 2007, UNHAS
will operate at least five helicopters per week to carry passengers as well as food and non-food items to remote communities where the poor weather makes road access difficult. ts/sc/jl
