Pakistan earthquake

The South Asia earthquake struck Pakistan hard on 8 October, 2005. The damage was huge with thousands killed, many more injured, and several million homeless. The UN refugee agency had stockpiles of life-saving supplies and operational capacity on the ground where it has worked for 25 years, caring for Afghan refugees. UNHCR immediately started distributing urgently needed tents and blankets from its Pakistan warehouses. Then, a massive airlift from UNHCR's global and regional stockpiles around the world got underway flying in urgently needed tents and shelter materials. On the ground aid workers struggled around the clock to overcome awesome logistical challenges. Funds from government and private donors have been dangerously slow to emerge.

It took a good two weeks before the true scale of the October 8, 2005 Himalayan earthquake became apparent. The estimated death toll from the quake – which measured around 7.6 on the Richter scale – climbed inexorably from 10-15,000 during the first day, to more than 50,000 (and still climbing) after the first two weeks. Although India was also badly affected, the vast majority of casualties occurred in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir – where the epicentre was located – and parts of neighbouring North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

As the Pakistani and Indian governments, as well as local and foreign aid agencies, rushed to dig out survivors, treat the injured and provide for the homeless, each day brought a greater realization of the sheer magnitude of the destruction: an estimated 15,000 villages affected; some larger towns such as Muzaffarabad and Balakot virtually flattened; more than 3 million homeless; 75,000 or more injured – including many who had still not been seen, let alone treated, two weeks after one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history shattered a tranquil Saturday morning in this remote and stunningly beautiful mountain region.

The UN refugee agency has traditionally played a very minor role – if any at all – during natural disasters. Its mandate is for refugees – the product of deliberate persecution or war – with a recently expanded role for people displaced within their own countries by similar man-made causes.

However, within a couple of days of the earthquake, it became clear that UNHCR's services would be needed for the second natural disaster in under a year (it also launched a major operation after the December 2004 tsunami in Asia). There were two main reasons for this: firstly, after 25 years managing major operations in Pakistan for the care and maintenance – and subsequently repatriation – of millions of Afghan refugees, it was still one of the biggest operational agencies on the ground. Secondly, after decades of setting up and runing refugee camps all over the world, it is the UN system's specialist on the provision of emergency shelter and camp management.

As hundreds of aftershocks continued to ripple through the scarred landscape, the need for massive quantities of emergency shelter quickly became apparent, and UNHCR shifted its initial focus from caring for the affected Afghan refugees to playing a much wider role in the combined UN relief effort.

Millions of people in Kashmir and NWFP were shivering out in the open, night after night, as the relief operation was dogged by a shortage of helicopters; by bad weather that frequently grounded those helicopters that were operating; and by the sheer logistical nightmare of trying to supply massive amounts of aid to one of the highest and most inaccessible inhabited areas in the world.

UNHCR committed most of its worldwide stock of tents – some 20,000 family tents in all – and began airlifting and trucking them into Pakistan, along with other vital items, including hundreds of thousands of blankets, from its regional and local stockpiles in Copenhagen, Amman, Dubai, Afghanistan, and within Pakistan itself. Then on 19 October, NATO planes began taking off from the Incirlik base in Turkey – the start of a huge airlift of around 10,000 tents, 104,000 blankets and 2,000 stoves – virtually the entire UNHCR stockpile in Turkey.

By the end of Week Two, UNHCR had also sent a number of trained emergency staff to bolster its existing team in Pakistan, and five emergency teams had been deployed across the earthquake zone.

By this stage, UNHCR – along with virtually all other agencies (both UN and non-governmental) – was being hampered by a very slow initial response by both governmental and private donors.

The tsunami (which may have killed more people, but produced fewer homeless in far more accessible terrain), and subsequent hurricanes and other natural disasters during 2005, seemed to have drained some of the willingness to respond to the misery unfolding in a remote corner of South Asia. Even though the earthquake and its aftermath were affecting millions of people, and an adequate response to the catastrophe was clearly way beyond the initial capacity of the Pakistan army and the combined efforts of all the world's major aid agencies, the international response was sluggish.

As the days went by, more and more urgent pleas for greater generosity came out from senior UN officials as well as NGOs – especially the medical agencies which were warning that minor injuries were going septic, amputations were on the increase, and unnecessary deaths were occurring.

Another potential big killer – the shortage of shelter materials and sufficient means to transport them, especially helicopters, was also being highlighted with increasing urgency as temperatures fell to around zero at night, and the spectre of a full-blown Himalayan winter lurked just around the corner. The underlying message: a slow response, in terms of funding and logistical aid was already costing lives. If donor apathy continued, it would cost many more.