CRITICAL NON-FOOD RELIEF SUPPLIES: WHAT IS STILL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ISLAMABAD 016837

SIPDIS

STATE ALSO PASS TO USAID
USAID/W FOR A/AID ANDREW NATSIOS, JBRAUSE
DCHA/OFDA KISAACS, GGOTTLIEB, MMARX, RTHAYER, BDEEMER
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA
SOUTH ASIA RESPONSE MANAGEMENT TEAM
SOUTH ASIA EARTHQUAKE TASK FORCE
DCHA/FFP FOR JONATHAN DWORKEN
ANE DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR MARK WARD
BANGKOK FOR OFDA SENIOR REGIONAL ADVISOR TOM DOLAN
KATHMANDU FOR OFDA REGIONAL ADVISOR WILLIAM BERGER
ROME PASS FODAG
GENEVA FOR RMA AND NKYLOH
NSC FOR JMELINE
EUCOM FOR POLA/J3/J4/J5
BRUSSELS FOR USAID PLERNER
NEW YORK FOR TMALY
SECDEF FOR SOLIC/PKHA, USDP/J3
JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC FOR J3/J4/J5
HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE FOR J3/J5

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON SENV PK
SUBJECT: CRITICAL NON-FOOD RELIEF SUPPLIES: WHAT IS STILL
NEEDED

REF: ISLAMABAD 016642

Summary: Drawing on the latest Government of Pakistan
Federal Relief Commission (FRC) documents, information from
the UN, and discussions with NGO partners, the DART undertook
an analysis of the current requirements, supply, and pipeline
for certain key non-food items, in order to determine where
critical shortfalls exist, as a follow-up to discussion in
REFTEL. This cable summarizes the current situation with
regard to a number of critical items, and reviews OFDA
efforts to address shortfalls where necessary. While it is
difficult to identify shortfalls with any degree of
precision, it appears that while there may be an overall
surplus of tents in general, properly winterized tents (both
family sized and larger ones) remain in short supply. End
summary.


1. DART staff has reviewed documents from the Government of
Pakistan Federal Relief Commission (FRC),information from
various UN reports, and input from a number of NGO
implementing partners, in order to evaluate current
requirements and available supplies for a number of critical
non-food items. These include tents, blankets, stoves,
plastic sheeting, corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) sheets,
and plywood.


2. While the overall number of available tents is close to
the FRC requirement, most of these are not designed for cold
weather, and sufficiently winterized tents remain in short
supply. Estimates of total tents now distributed, in
warehouses awaiting distribution, and in the pipeline (with
estimated delivery by 30 November) vary from 500,000 to over
600,000. The current overall requirement, according to the
FRC, is 473,000, suggesting a surplus ranging from 25,000 to
over 100,000. Several caveats should be noted regarding
these numbers. On the one hand, UN OCHA believes that many
tents have been double counted, because of both donors and
implementing NGOs taking credit for the same tents, which
would reduce the available supply. Also, a number of tents
were evidently lost during airdrops to remote areas. On the
other hand, the pipeline estimate does not include additional
surplus tents from DOD (over 3,000) which we anticipate
receiving. In addition, the FRC tent requirement has not
been adjusted downward to account for various non-tent
shelter-in-place solutions (plastic sheeting, CGI roofs,
etc.).


3. In addition to small (family-sized) tents, there is still
a major requirement for large tents that can serve as schools
or medical clinics. The GOP estimates that over 6,000
schools were destroyed, and another 5,500 damaged, in the two
affected provinces, as well as over 350 health facilities.
Based on this damage, the GoP has projected a need for 30,000
large tents as a subset of the overall requirement. We have
provided about 300 military GP Medium and Large tents to NGO
partners, and several hundred more are in the DOD pipeline.
We are now in the process of bringing in over 100 large high
altitude tents from Alaska for the Government of Pakistan,
and over 450 large tents, now in Kabul, for the Pakistani NGO
RSPN. The FRC has not provided an estimate of current and
projected supplies for large tents. The DART believes that
the anticipated US contribution will not be sufficient to
close the gap, and will continue to seek additional DOD tents
and encourage other donors to contribute large tents.


4. The requirement for blankets is somewhat ambiguous. FRC
estimates a total requirement of 3.3 million, with over 2.7
million now provided. According to UN OCHA, there are about
400,000 more in the pipeline. However, the FRC just this
week halved its blanket requirement (from 6.6 million),and
identified a new requirement for an equal number of
mattresses (3.3 million). There are no figures available on
current or projected supplies of mattresses. Some NGO
partners are providing foam pads, which they are easily
sourcing locally, while others are providing extra blankets
(anywhere from two to five per recipient) instead of
mattresses. As such, we can assume an outstanding blanket
requirement of anywhere from 200,000 to over 2 million.
Discussions with NGO partners indicate that, although there
may not be sufficient blankets available in Pakistan, there
are more stocks in the region that may be accessed. About
200,000 additional blankets have been identified in DOD
stocks for this operation. If needed by NGOs, DART logistics
team has found several local sources for commercial
procurement of blankets.


5. Small stoves for cooking and heating are another new item
recently added by the FRC. Their estimate is identical to
the tent requirement (473,000),suggesting one stove per
household. However, NGO partners believe that a significant
number of people, at least 20 percent, would have kept stoves
from their permanent homes, reducing the overall requirement.
Again, there is no way of accurately estimating the current
supply or pipeline. Some NGOs are procuring propane stoves,
for use in urban areas at lower altitudes where gas supply is
possible, while most are looking at wood burning, Bukhari
type stoves. Some NGOs have found that these are now in
short supply in Pakistan, and lead times are too long (45
days or more). DART Logistics has found local commercial
sources if needed by NGOs, and such stoves can be procured in
India and other countries in the region.


6. In addition to items identified by FRC, DART has looked
into the availability of several other critical commodities.
One item consistently requested by partners is additional
USAID specification plastic sheeting (in fact, one NGO alone
requested 2000 to 4000 rolls). To date we have provided
6,150 rolls of sheeting to NGOs, but given its multiple uses
the requirement is significantly higher. DART is now
procuring on a test basis 5,000 locally produced plastic
tarps (roughly equivalent to 450 rolls, though of a thinner
grade) for implementing partners, and has identified other
commercial sources for such sheeting. Already two
implementing partners alone are in the process of procuring
over 35,000 sheets of such plastic. While this thinner
plastic may not be ideal, the DART does not at this time
anticipate a need to completely exhaust all worldwide OFDA
stocks of plastic sheeting for this operation.


7. A second item which is essential to our shelter strategy
is corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) for roofing of damaged
houses. DART has conducted a market analysis of locally
available CGI and provided this info to implementing
partners. Several NGOs are already procuring CGI from these
and other sources. In addition, the Government of Pakistan
is making major purchases of CGI itself to support shelter.
The DART does not anticipate a requirement to import CGI from
the US or other sources outside the region.


8. Finally, the DART has looked into available sources of
plywood, which are critical to construction of latrines.
Both DART assessments and discussions with implementing
partners indicate that latrines are in dreadfully short
supply. Failure to address this need rapidly will exacerbate
public health problems, especially in tented camps. DART is
now procuring 500 sheets of plywood locally, which will
probably be provided to UNICEF. In addition the US Navy
Engineers (Seabees) now operating at Muzaffarabad are
constructing latrines. DART Logistics has identified local
commercial sources of plywood for our NGO partners.


9. In addition to supplies of key commodities, the FRC has
identified other critical requirements that are quantified by
budget figures rather than numbers of items. In the
water/sanitation sector, the FRC estimates $10 million is
needed for water tankers, pumps, generators, purification
tablets, trucks and incinerators. This figure, however, does
not include any funding for construction of latrines. In the
public health sector, the FRC has estimated that $8.5 million
is needed for immunizations, disease surveillance, drugs,
medical equipment, and vector control. The donors,
conference scheduled for November 19 will address these and
other longer term sectoral needs in much greater detail.


10. In the next few weeks, the Government of Pakistan, UN,
and NGOs will undertake a major effort to move critical
supplies to vulnerable earthquake affected areas before the
onset of winter. It is expected that estimates of
anticipated supplies and shortfalls of key items will change,
as more items are distributed and the better information is
available from the field. The DART will continue to refine
its analysis and report on the changing situation in the
weeks to come.




CROCKER