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Anger grows over quake response
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, today pledged another £63m in earthquake relief funds as anger grew over the pace of the response to the south Asia disaster.
Mr Singh, making his first visit to some of the devastated areas of Indian-controlled Kashmir, admitted that survivors of Saturday's quake did not have enough tents or medicines.
Authorities in Pakistan and India have been struggling to reach remote areas devastated by the disaster. Roads have been blocked by landslides, and many communities have been without water and electricity for days.
The death toll from the 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which flattened whole towns around its epicentre in Kashmir, is close to 40,000, and 2.5 million people have been made homeless.
The official toll in Pakistan remains at around 20,000, but a senior army official close to the rescue operations today said it was believed the figure was "between 35,000 and 40,000 people".
Indian officials said the death toll in Indian-controlled Kashmir had reached 1,005.
Fears were growing over how survivors in the worst-hit areas near the mountainous Pakistan-India border in Kashmir and northern Pakistan would cope with winter weather only six weeks away.
As he toured some of the affected areas, Mr Singh assured thousands of people that India's federal government would help them rebuild their lives.
The relief funds he pledged today was in addition to the £17m already promised by his government for the relief and rehabilitation in the Himalayan territory.
Trucks carrying aid were today reaching Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. As the aid arrived, scuffles broke out among survivors desperate for food and blankets.
Almost every building in the river town has been either destroyed or damaged. Relatives and rescuers have spent the last three days attempting to save people trapped in the rubble.
"We are still looking for bodies in the debris," AM Khandy, the deputy commissioner in the Indian Kashmir district of Karnah, said. "It is a calamity that is overwhelming our resources."
The UN world food programme last night began a major airlifting of emergency supplies to Pakistan. More planes were due to arrive later today, carrying medical supplies, generators and high-energy biscuits, the organisation said.
Read More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1589652,00.html
Authorities in Pakistan and India have been struggling to reach remote areas devastated by the disaster. Roads have been blocked by landslides, and many communities have been without water and electricity for days.
The death toll from the 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which flattened whole towns around its epicentre in Kashmir, is close to 40,000, and 2.5 million people have been made homeless.
The official toll in Pakistan remains at around 20,000, but a senior army official close to the rescue operations today said it was believed the figure was "between 35,000 and 40,000 people".
Indian officials said the death toll in Indian-controlled Kashmir had reached 1,005.
Fears were growing over how survivors in the worst-hit areas near the mountainous Pakistan-India border in Kashmir and northern Pakistan would cope with winter weather only six weeks away.
As he toured some of the affected areas, Mr Singh assured thousands of people that India's federal government would help them rebuild their lives.
The relief funds he pledged today was in addition to the £17m already promised by his government for the relief and rehabilitation in the Himalayan territory.
Trucks carrying aid were today reaching Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. As the aid arrived, scuffles broke out among survivors desperate for food and blankets.
Almost every building in the river town has been either destroyed or damaged. Relatives and rescuers have spent the last three days attempting to save people trapped in the rubble.
"We are still looking for bodies in the debris," AM Khandy, the deputy commissioner in the Indian Kashmir district of Karnah, said. "It is a calamity that is overwhelming our resources."
The UN world food programme last night began a major airlifting of emergency supplies to Pakistan. More planes were due to arrive later today, carrying medical supplies, generators and high-energy biscuits, the organisation said.
Read More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1589652,00.html
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According to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the official death toll has reached 25,000 and another 52,000 people have been injured. The actual figure, however, is certainly higher. Official estimates put the number of dead at anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000.
Pakistani military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan declared: “It is a whole generation that has been lost in the worst affected areas.”
A wide swathe of northern Pakistan—including areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (Azad Kashmir) and the North West Frontier Province—was affected by the huge quake. Whole villages and towns were flattened. Much of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir was destroyed, leaving the city of 600,000 without electricity, running water and other basic services.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been left for days without food, medicine or shelter to face driving rains and the cold as winter approaches. The UN estimated that at least one million people have been left homeless. Prime Minister Aziz has put the figure at 2.5 million but others insist that it is higher.
Some of the blocked roads through the mountainous areas have been cleared but relief supplies and rescue workers have just begun to reach major towns. Villagers from outlying areas have been forced to walk long distances to obtain any assistance.
According to the UN, 1,000 hospitals have been destroyed in the affected region. The World Health Organisation declared: “The devastation has created major obstacles in urgently helping the thousands of injured people to get the medical care they need. Many health workers—including doctors and nurses—have died or been seriously injured.”
Medical teams are stretched to the limit and lacking in basic supplies. In many cases, untreated fractures and other injuries have led to gangrene. At the hospital in Mahsehra, staff had medicines but were deeply concerned what would happen after the patients, particularly the poor, left the hospital.
One doctor explained to the Los Angeles Times: “We use the most powerful antibiotics. But they have open fractures, compound fractures, and we are dealing with them in a hurry. They will have infections later because they are so poor that I don’t think they can get any medications by themselves. They won’t survive.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Tuesday of a possible epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad where 11,000 have been confirmed dead. MSF spokeswoman Isabelle Simpson said that teams reaching the city found it “much more destroyed than anticipated”. The danger of disease was especially high “as very few people have shelter up there, they’re crowding into homes and camp-type situations”.
Growing anger
The appalling conditions and the lack of assistance have generated rising despair, frustration and anger. Those worst affected are the poor who in many cases have lost everything. Much of the affected area had already been hard hit by heavy rains and snowfalls last winter, followed by floods and avalanches in February.
“The government is only showing us the relief on television,” a storekeeper, Abdul Razzaq, in Bagh told the Dawn newspaper. “We haven’t seen a drop of water or medicine coming to us, not even a single grain.” Another resident, Sharafat, added: “We have been totally neglected by everyone. No one knows the state we are in.”
Abdul Aziz told the New York Times that he fed his four children on Monday morning with “whatever I could snatch”. He said that his family had no shelter and only a single blanket. Angry over government relief operations, he exclaimed: “We have only what’s on our back”.
A local journalist in Hattagram told Reuters that the first aid only reached the city on Tuesday. “The people are very angry over the late arrival of the aid... Many people were lying under open sky in hail and rain yesterday with no shelter.” Today, he added ironically, “the weather is clear and the army has promised to give 750 tents to us”.
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/quak-o13.shtml