PAKISTAN: Relief operations for millions of earthquake survivors in northeast Pakistan swung into action yesterday as the skies cleared and helicopters and trucks laden with food, medicine and other essentials began lumbering in to the devastated mountainous region.
However, reports from the affected region indicated that there was concern over the lack of co- ordination, with supplies yet to reach remote areas.
President Pervez Musharraf appealed for more international aid for victims saying, "this tragedy is much bigger than the capacity and capability of the government as a whole. We have to face this challenge".
Assistance to 2.5 million people made homeless by Saturday's earthquake was temporarily suspended overnight because of rain and thunderstorms. United Nations relief teams, meanwhile, warned of a growing threat of disease as winter loomed, with the upper mountain reaches already getting their first snow.
Pakistan said the death toll had hit 23,000, although relief agencies believe that when the rubble is cleared and more bodies recovered the number of fatalities could mount to 40,000. Another 60,000 have been injured.
"Last night was the fourth night we slept in the open," Khurshid Bibi said, pointing to her family of 15 camped on the roadside outside their collapsed house in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the epicentre of the 7.6-magnitude quake.
The search for survivors continues. A Russian rescue team with sniffer dogs, powerful listening devices and a machine that detects carbon dioxide, a sign of breathing, rescued five-year old Zarabe Shah, 100 hours after she was trapped under rubble of her wrecked home.
Thousands of people have also begun leaving Muzaffarabad, a ruined city without electricity, sanitation or food, water or fuel. Sewage, rubble and bodies have further contaminated the Neelum river which is the city's main source of drinking water.
"Health services have totally collapsed here and malaria, gastroenteritis and water-borne diseases have already spread in worst-hit areas of the city," Khawaja Shabir, the province's health chief said.
Prices of whatever little food is available have increased ten- fold, driving desperate survivors to looting.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Pakistan to assure full support in aid and relief to Islamabad. The Pentagon has promised Pakistan up to 30 helicopters, which remain the principal lifeline to ferry in supplies to the disaster-hit area and fly out the injured.
In Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities say the death toll of 1,300 is likely to rise as access to 10 mountain villages becomes possible.