IOM has launched a shelter security survey in 100 of the
worst-affected union councils of Pakistan-administered Kashmir
(PAK) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to identify the
population’s most urgent shelter needs before the upcoming
Himalayan winter.

A year after the disastrous earthquake on 8 October, which
displaced some 3.5 million people and left 75,000 dead, official
estimates of the number of houses in the region still in need of
rebuilding or repair tops 600,000.

But information about the adequacy of existing shelter,
availability of food and non-food items, accessibility of remote
areas and whether people plan to migrate down from the mountains to
the valleys this winter, remains limited.  

"The survey will help the governments of NWFP and PAK to better
understand the shelter situation and to adapt their contingency
plans ahead of what could be a very harsh winter," says John
Sampson, head of IOM’s Muzaffarabad sub-office.

The survey, which will run through October, will cover the
districts of Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Mansehra, Batagram, Shangla,
Abbottabad and Kohistan and will be implemented with the help of
international and national NGOs, the civil authorities, local
community-based organizations and volunteers.

Sampson sees the survey as an important precursor to an IOM
programme funded by the American International Group Disaster
Relief Fund (AIG DRF) to establish trained and equipped rapid
response teams and support hubs in earthquake-affected areas before
the winter.

"IOM’s coordination of agencies providing emergency
shelter in the immediate aftermath of the quake, and our work in
villages above 5,000 ft in Operation Winter Race taught us the
value of detailed local knowledge, understanding people’s
needs and meeting them within tight deadlines dictated by the
weather," he observes.

IOM’s first six AIG DRF-funded rapid response team base
camps are currently being established in the Siran, Kaghan and
Allai valleys in NWFP, and in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys and in
Muzaffarabad in PAK. They will provide emergency services including
medical care, winter survivability, communications, fire fighting,
logistics and assessments.

For more information, please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel. +92.300.8565967

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int