US embassy cable - 05ISLAMABAD16837

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, Earthquake 
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