Almost two years after a powerful earthquake ripped through parts of northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, there are over 13,000 people still in tented camps across the quake zone facing a number of problems.
"A large caseload of displaced people has been repatriated and those remaining are being dealt with on a case by case basis," said Adviser to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) Andrew McLeod.
"We have reached the global benchmark where one and half years after the natural disaster it is normal to have 10 percent of the residual population in camps," McLeod added.
One of the major problems is food distribution among vulnerable families. Food supplies had come to an end on June 30 and confusion abounds as to whom to ask for food for the coming months, says a report by IRIN, the UN information unit.
In a weekly meeting with the Returns Tasks Force and Camp Management Organisation, Commissioner Chaudhry Ghazanfar said: "The government does not have the funds and Erra must take action to keep the food supply going."
The authorities in Azad Kashmir want Erra to release funds for the said purpose but Erra intends to request United Nation World Food Programme (WFP) to continue the food supply for 400 vulnerable families.
Additional Commissioner for Azad Kashmir, Raja Abbas, said the residual caseload of quake survivors in camps would further reduce to 10,000 as non-specified internally displaced persons (IDPs), not falling in either category of landless or vulnerable, would return to their places of origin. The remaining camps after maximum repatriation shall stay on till December 2007.
Of the over 13,000 people left in 40 camps, 98 percent became landless due to the earthquake and landslides, or are vulnerable people, including the elderly, disabled, orphans and pregnant women. Another groups are those who have land in areas declared hazardous by the Geological Survey of Pakistan, and are waiting to be relocated to safe areas.
In March, the camp authorities said they would close all tented camps by end of June 2007 and quake-displaced families were to return to their areas in two phases. In the first phase, IDPs possessing land but who had lost their houses and livelihoods had been assisted to return. In the second phase starting in May, landless families were to be assisted through an additional grant of about 1,250 dollars.
With the onset of premature monsoon rains, subsequent flooding and landslides have aggravated the situation of camp residents. "Some of the shelters made of corrugated sheets collapsed while others leaked badly. This has adversely affected water and sanitation systems in the camp. Help has arrived and partner organisations have started fixing it," said Assistant Camp Manager Khawaja Java Mera Tanolian I, 30 minutes drive from Muzaffarabad.
"Last week my shelter collapsed in the night due to gusts of wind and rain. We were without a roof and had to take refuge in another shelter that night," said Saeed Ali, a landless IDP who had later pitched a small tent and was living in it with six family members. It has been exactly one year since he arrived in Camp Mera Tanolian II; he is awaiting compensation for his lost land.
To settle the issues facing the landless among the residual caseload, Land Verification Units (LVUs) are being established in collaboration with UN Habitat, the Government Revenue Department and officials from affected areas - Azad Kashmir and North West Frontier Province.
In one of the two existing camps in NWFP, the registration process has already started but an effective information campaign needs to be galvanised in the other 39 camps still functioning in earthquake hit areas.
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