From the field in Muzaffarabad

Date: 03/11/05

From a distance, Muzaffarabad looks like an enticing destination, surrounded by the spectacular Kashmir Mountains.

But even before you reach the city on the winding road from Islamabad, you know the impression will be wrong. For every kilometre brings increasing evidence of the tragic events of 8 October: large boulders pushed to the side so that vehicles can pass; the first collapsed house; a small tent encampment on one of the rare pieces of flat ground; stretches of route with hastily dug detours because the original road has disappeared.

To enter Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani- controlled Kashmir, you pass through a road tunnel through the mountain about 50 metres long. There used to be two tunnels, one in each direction. The outer one has been swept away so incoming and departing vehicles have to alternate, controlled by traffic police at each end.

On the other side, the terrifying power of the earthquake is starkly revealed. Multi-storey buildings that have concertinaed to little more than the height of a single floor; individual homes where the walls have crumbled but the roof lies intact at near ground level; garden walls distorted into grotesque shape. And in the middle of all this, the survivors. Some sit at the doors of their tents, still dulled by the horror, but the town is also bustling with activity - because life has to go on. There are traders selling food where their shops have survived, men carrying building materials to make shelters for their families before the winter arrives. The main roads are busy with the colourfully decorated lorries so characteristic of this part of the world. They come every day in their hundreds delivering relief supplies, and often returning with evacuees. Then there are all the military, UN and NGO vehicles.

The office of ECHO, the European Commission's humanitarian department, is situated at one end of a United Nations' tent in the base they have set up on a school sports pitch. Everything here is under canvas and you can see why. Although Muzaffarabad escaped the total destruction visited upon towns and villages a little further north, the buildings still standing are nearly all badly damaged. And after dozens of powerful aftershocks, few people are keen at present to have a real roof over their heads - especially at night time.

'A roof over their heads' - even if only a canvas one - is the main challenge in this crisis as winter approaches. Aid agencies are working flat out to deliver tents and other basic supplies to those who are most in need. Oxfam, funded by the European Commission under the primary emergency decision announced on the day after the earthquake, is making daily deliveries to outlying villages. The worry is that there may not be enough tents in the world to meet the enormous needs in these stricken valleys.

Medical aid is the other initial priority. The Fin-nish and Norwegian Red Cross, also supported by the EU, have set up an impressive field hospital in the city. It is replacing the two main hospitals, both destroyed. The number of patients awaiting treatment for wounds sustained during the earthquake is beginning to go down but injured people still arrive daily by helicopter from remote communities.

At the heli-pad - also a converted sports field - the helicopters take off and land all day, delivering relief supplies to areas cut off by road and bringing the seriously injured to hospital. The Commission is also supporting this operation with funding from the Aga Khan Foundation with other contributions in the pipeline.

The Commission has announced proposals to provide substantial new funds for humanitarian aid and rehabilitation in this region.

The money is vital, but so too is the human commitment. The Commission's humanitarian aid experts (based in Balakot and Islamabad, as well as Muzaffarabad) have been working 14-hour days, seven days a week - often in difficult and uncomfortable conditions - since they arrived. So have their UN, Red Cross/Crescent and NGO colleagues in the partner agencies.

They are the human embodiment of European - and global - solidarity with the victims of this terrible tragedy.

• Simon Horner is head of the information and communication unit at the European Commission's humanitarian aid department, ECHO.

Author, who is head of the information and communication unit at the European Commission's humanitarian aid department, ECHO, reports on international assistance operations in Pakistan's Kashmir region after the devastating earthquake of 8 October 2005.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO): South Asia earthquake: the EU response http://ec.europa.eu/comm/echo/whatsnew/earthquake-pak2005_en.htm

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