Around 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have so far returned to their native homeland in Swat after the military operations in the area, a UN humanitarian official said on Thursday. "Around 90 percent of the displaced Swatis have returned to their homes. The figure now stand at 1.6 million out of total 2.3 million IDPs from different areas," said UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan, Martin Mogwanja.
"During the past week, average 500 families returned to their homes daily. The return rate in the past weeks was faster as 1,400 families use to return everyday," Mogwanja said at a news conference. He said large number of IDPs have returned to their homes, now only 454 school buildings are under their use out of total 4,700. Revealing the findings of the recent mission to Swat area, Mogwanja said, due to scattered attacks by independent groups, still there are some security concerns.
Secondly, he said, checkpoints and barricades are causing significant delay in movement of IDPs and relief goods. Thirdly, early recovery operation for provision of basic facilities was urgently needed as 600,000 IDPs were on their way back.
Martin Mogwanja Humanitarian Co-ordinator while informing about their visit to Swat said that during the visit the UN mission met district authorities in Mingora and national and international non-governmental organisations, and agreed that early recovery had to start as soon as possible. He added that the public sector infrastructures and facilities such as telecommunication, electricity, water supply systems, schools and health facilities are functional; however, they are in a pretty dilapidated condition.
There is the need for food assistance during the Early Recovery Phase. There are currently four food distribution hubs in place. We visited one of them and were pleased to see that it was working very well. Every registered returning household was given a monthly ration of 80kg of flour, 3.7kg of vegetable oil, 8kg of pulses, 5kg of biscuits, 4kg of sugar, 2kg of dates, 1kg of salt and 300mg of tea. Some of the items were especially added due to Ramazan, Martin Mogwanja revealed.
Mogwanja maintained that livestock also needs to be rehabilitated; however, the main focus should be on agriculture. The population in Swat has lost over 85 percent of the crops of the last harvest. Adding to Mogwanja, the WHO Country Representative Khalif Bille Mohamud said, 25 health facilities were partially and five were totally damaged during the operation.
Mohamud said after recovery five facilities out of these 25 have started functioning and he mentioned the shortage of human resource, especially lady medical workers. He said that the health infrastructure and provision of essential health services is also a top priority of the organisation, adding that out of the 75 health facilities, 21 have been partially damaged while four have been completely damaged.
He maintained that there is particular concern on behalf of women, who have not yet returned to work in significant numbers. "Women's healthcare, particularly in rural areas, is dependent on the presence of female staff, and there are still none in Mingora hospital", Mohamud said.
As far as education is concerned, around 80 percent of the schools are now open and running and most markets are back in business. As Swat District has seen the most returnees, an increasing number of humanitarian actors, UN agencies as well as local NGOs and International NGOs have gone back to assist the activities in the district. For this reason, UN OCHA is looking into opening a satellite office in the province, which will work closely with the district authorities and other humanitarian actors on the ground, said Manuel Bessler head of UN OCHA, Pakistan.
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