United Nations agencies are working around the clock, are sending supplies and teams of emergency workers to the survivors of an earthquake that left an estimated 30,000 dead and 40,000 injured in Pakistan. While 1 million people are in need of acute, life-saving assistance, 2.5 million people have been left homeless, and 4 million affected.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has planned an airlift of 200 metric tons of high energy biscuits, which are vital in the days following a natural disaster, because survivors cannot cook their own food. The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing essential medicines to cover 210,000 people for one month, in addition to equipment for 1,000 surgeries. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has begun distributing supplies for up to 100,000 people, such as family tents, blankets and stoves, drawn from existing stockpiles. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned that tens of thousands of women in the affected areas are currently pregnant, and has begun trucking in medical supplies.
The earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, inflicted massive destruction in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, Jammu and Kashmir States on the morning of 8 October. More than ten aftershocks had magnitudes of 5.2 to 6.3. The quake also left 200 dead in northern India and caused minor damage in Afghanistan.
The relief effort is being hampered by rain and mudslides, making access to the affected areas very difficult. Hansjoerg Strohmeyer of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the relief effort was currently dependent on helicopters, as the affected area could only be reached by one small road, incapable of handling heavy truck traffic. OCHA has set up emergency relief coordination centers in the capital Islamabad, as well as an on-site center in the Muzaffarabad area.
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