Nov, 2005

Earthquake Relief Efforts - 2. ( Balakot & Kaghan Valley )

 

The KL Team

 

The first party of 4 left Lahore by late evening to join the main party of Mountain Guides who had reached Rawalpindi from North. At Pindi we formed the main team and the tents were off loaded and checked for quality. Advance party of four left early morning from Pindi for Balakot. On the way camp was chosen at Ghari Habib Ullah. The main team with tents arrived by evening 27 th October at the camp.

The advance party, after choosing the camp- used the afternoon to visit the road above Balakot leading into Kaghan Valley . The road had been opened for 13 km, before the Ganol village. There was very limited space at the road head and obviously crowded with people coming down from the mountains as well as machinery & personnel of army road engineers. Some aid agencies distributing food rations had also stretched little spaces for their stores & staff. So it was not a suitable place for storage and camping Most of the agencies had chosen Ghari Habib Ullah for the camp, as it offered ample flat space, clean water and central position to feed Kaghan and Muzaffarabad valleys.

In Ghari Habib Ullah, just a few km from Balakot we had camped hear the house of Banaras , an old friend & jeep driver who is basically from Jarid in Kaghan valley. This village is among the worst hit in the valley. Banaras had made this house here some years ago. Now all his brothers & sisters and some cousins had come to stay with him after the earthquake. As they had no tents so they had used patchwork of sheets & plastic bought from Abbotabad to make some shelter for their families. After viewing their situation, we all decided to change our plan of trekking deep in the valley to reach effected people - as there were these families sitting here without any shelter and hope of help. As the procedure for distribution of tents used by officials is to survey the villages & houses and then they provide shelter. The families said their village was surveyed on 14 th Oct, but they had not received anything so far. This has forced them to come down. It was ironic to see everyone trying to rush forward while leaving behind these families under the sky. We all loved to do the trek, but if the main purpose was to help the surviving families then we needed to concentrate here.

So on 28 th Oct morning, we first catered to these 11 families who had recently migrated from their village Jarid. We checked their ID cards to make sure that they were all from the effected village and this was noted down.

On 28 th we also were in contact with our friends from Muzaffarabad, they had indicated another 11 families in their area in the far off villages of Kashmir who desperately needed tents. So Hatim ( Mt. Guide from Skardu) was prepared with 11 tents and sent with truck to Kashmir . In the meantime we had downloaded the bulk of tents to a room in Banaras ' house. He joined his Kashmiri volunteer friends and they were able to distribute the tents to effected families in following villages:

Noor Shah Bela, Dhani Mai and Shaheed Gali.

One team stayed back at store to check the tents, out ropes to them and then make the complete package. We had great difficulty in getting the tents ready, as process was too slow. So tent rods had been picked directly from the rod manufacturer. Ground sheets had been prepared from flex sheets at the office, and the nylon body of tent was now being fitted with slings. Finally they were packed as independent packages.

And then when we moved from Balakot to Ganol where road was blocked, we visited the villages around and found that many families were still without shelter. Also a larger number of
families were moving down the newly made trek, as road had been badly washed at some points. We then catered to the needs of the villages around Ganol. The procedure was simple, to visit the houses and specially find the families without shelter. Every morning we loaded the jeep with ready tents and then left for the road head, where jeep was parked with two staff ready to receive the delivery orders. We would then divide in 2/3 parties and survey the far off villages, to look for families that would be requiring tents. Once the need was confirmed, we would make a slip of paper with name & ID card of the person from the effected family - and then they would go down to the road and collect the tent from our staff in Jeep. Every evening we matched the results to make sure there were no wastages. Then a small team would visit Abbotabad to receive the lot of tents sent from Lahore by cargo. Daewoo Express was very helpful to offer us free transportation for these tents every evening.

Another aspect was that the families were bringing down with them their remaining assets, their cattle. And this was not approved by the tent villages set up around Balakot and lower down. They strict discipline, routine and procedures for entering & leaving, cooking is not allowed by individual families and cooked food is distributed collectively by relief staff. They could not keep their animals near the camp. These families were left to look out for their village's people or relatives around, who had camped where grass is available for cattle. We found many families who were lying under the sky, so there was no way to not cater to their need. Army is also
coordinating the relief efforts and doing much, yet their procedures are lengthy and require official endorsement from a political figure of the area.

On receiving fresh requests from Kashmir , we decided to send another party there. Mr. Mir Alam from Saryan village ( Kashmir ) came to our camp with two volunteers. From our side Wahab, Dilbar, Sabit & Jalal (with 15 tents) accompanied them to their village, some 7 hours walk from the road head north of Muzaffarabad. They found the situation similar to areas around Balakot, some families had tent while others were still waiting.

On the evening of our 6 th day at camp, we had distributed the full load of tents to the maximum needy families we could find. As there were no more tents expected from Lahore , so we decided to close the camp and returned to Islamabad in night.

A few days' later 5 members of our team joined the volunteers from Lums University Lahore and went to Bagh in Kashmir valley to help distribute the tents and relief goods among the villagers around Bagh area. They have returned yesterday and the field report is not very different from the other areas. Tents are being distributed now, but still you can find families that need shelter.

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