Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the amount of foreign reconstruction aid promised after the devastating South Asian quake is ”totally inadequate,” a report said on Friday.
Military ruler Musharraf was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation as saying that Pakistan needed about $5-billion in disaster aid but the international community had pledged only around $620-million.
Musharraf’s comments came a day after the United Nations begged the world to wake up and prevent a second wave of deaths by setting up a massive Berlin airlift-style helicopter operation.
More than 51 300 people died in the October 8 quake and more than three million people remain homeless, mostly in the northern Himalayan foothills of Kashmir with winter just around the corner.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that donors had only made firm commitments for 12% of the $312-million needed right away after the tragedy.
Musharraf’s spokesperson, Major General Shaukat Sultan, said the president was only referring to the reconstruction aid, not the initial appeal for aid and rescue teams.
”We have to divide into two parts — one is the relief and the second is reconstruction. He said that the response of the international community in the context of rescue and relief have been commendable,” Sultan said.
”It is reconstruction where the pledges are highly inadequate because reconstruction would require billions of dollars… for houses, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, colleges and police stations, roads and bridges.
”It is this part where the pledges so far are inadequate. That is why there is a donor conference in Geneva after a few days.”
The UN-backed meeting on October 26 in the Swiss city is set to bring together ministers from Pakistan and donor countries as well as international aid agencies and other relief groups.
The United States pledged on Thursday to play a key role at the conference.
Turkey became the biggest donor on Friday when it pledged $150-million to its fellow Muslim country — $100-million in cash and $50-million in aid.
Merciless winter
All homeless quake survivors in Indian Kashmir will have a tent by the end of October and snow-proof shelters by the end of November, the home ministry said Friday.
”By end of November everyone should have a pucca [permanent shelter], semi-pucca, prefab or snow tent,” said VK Duggal, secretary of India’s home ministry, at a briefing on earthquake relief efforts.
The government says it has already provided more than 15 000 tents to the region and 1 898 more should arrive by Saturday, but that is still less than half the number that state officials say are required.
Mehbooba Mufti, the head of Indian Kashmir’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, says 35 000 tents are needed to house tens of thousands of villagers whose homes were destroyed in remote mountain hamlets.
The 7,6-magnitude quake killed more than 1 300 people and left more than 5 000 others injured in Indian Kashmir. It affected 117 000 houses, with more than a third of them destroyed, leaving 150 000 people homeless.
”I appeal to Indian aid workers to send us more tents to save our people from merciless winters,” Mufti said on Thursday.
The federal government said earlier it had so far been able to find less than half the number of tents requested, and some of those may not be suitable for winter conditions in Kashmir, where snowfalls can reach three metres.
On Friday, the government said it would buy 1 000 tents from The Netherlands and another 1 000 arctic tents from Alaska, but that still leaves the government short by at least 10 000 tents.
”We are procuring arctic tents from different locations,” said Duggal, adding that the government had placed orders with various tent suppliers.
Although Indian and foreign media have drawn attention to the fact that many more tents are needed in Kashmir, Duggal said after the briefing that international aid was not needed.
”Suppose we take aid, it couldn’t reach any faster,” said Duggal.
”We don’t want it, there is no need. Why aren’t you happy we are self-supporting?”
This past winter, Kashmir had its worst snowfall in two decades. The state government in Indian Kashmir has appealed to other states to send any surplus tents available and urged manufacturers to produce more tents as quickly as possible.
The government is also building prefabricated cold-proof community centres where people can shelter at night and work outside during the day to rebuild their houses.
But relief officials have warned that thousands of people should be quickly evacuated to lower elevations before the onset of the punishing Himalayan winter as it will become impossible to build homes in the heavy snow. – AFP
