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UN 'Habitat' launches winterised shelter homes
ISLAMABAD Nov 20 : The United Nations (UN) agency for human settlement, 'Habitat', on Saturday launched winterised shelter scheme for the earthquake-affected families of NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
Briefing newsmen about the plan, UN senior advisor for earthquake recovery, John Rogge, said that these tents-like cold-resistant shelters were prepared in collaboration with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan and emergency architects.
The UN Under-secretary-General and Executive Director of United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Anna Tibaijuka, who was scheduled to launch the project, could not brief the newsmen because she was busy in the Donors Conference.
"With the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other welfare organisations, UN-Habitat will implement the initiative for 1,000 vulnerable families in the Siran Valley in NWFP, and in Machiara Tehsil of Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK)," John said.
He said these shelter-homes would help ensure that at least some victims of the recent earthquake are provided warm room for their families and protection for their livestock by UN Agency for Human Settlement.
John said only 16 steel sheets, nails, string, timber and a few basic tools are required to build a shelter which costs only Rs 22,000. The same materials, he said, could be reused to rebuild a permanent home.
He said that a large proportion of the families whose houses had been destroyed in the earthquake are not willing to shift in the tent settlements far from their land, and preferred to live in tents in their native areas.
"Living in a tent in these high altitude areas is not a desirable option, particularly in winter when temperature is down to zero or minus," he said, adding that these cheap and easily executable shelters are socially acceptable to them.
He also called upon the international community, donors and NGOs to contribute generously for those living at high mountains areas like Neelum Valley where helicopters are the only way of reaching.
He said that about 3 million people have lost their homes in the quake, with hundreds of thousands still living in flimsy tents, and some with no shelter at all. He said that the aid agencies are in a race against time and in need of sufficient funds to carry on relief effort.