PAKISTAN: UN VOICES CONCERN OVER DESTRUCTION OF HEALTH FACILITIES

With many health centres in north-western Pakistan having been destroyed or looted during recent clashes between Government forces and militants, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today expressed apprehension about supporting the 1.5 million uprooted people returning to their homes.

"We are still very much concerned about the possibility of being able to supply [returnees] with the necessary support in health," Eric Laroche, WHO Assistant Director-General, said.

He expressed relief that there have been no outbreaks of epidemics, attributing this to the early warning system in place on the ground.

"The problem now is that these people are going back home and we need to reinstitute these types of surveillance systems and early warning systems in these areas of return," Dr. Laroche said, adding that this will be a "major challenge."

WHO, he said, needs $35 million to respond to the health crisis and recovery in northwest Pakistan.

According to the Pakistani Government, almost 90 per cent of the 1.1 million people in the Swat district – which has an overall population of 1.7 million – who were driven out by fighting have since returned to their homes.

A UN inter-agency mission lead by Martin Mogwanja, the world body's Humanitarian Coordinator, found that public sector infrastructure and facilities such as telecommunications and electricity are functional, but dilapidated.

Food assistance is also crucial during the early recovery phase, the team said. Currently, there are four food distribution hubs in place, with every registered household receiving a monthly ration.

In Swat, nearly 90 per cent of crops from the last harvest have been lost, it added.

To assist the Government and the international community to respond to needs in the wake of the country's displacement crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week announced the appointment of veteran French diplomat Jean-Maurice Ripert as his Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan.

Mr. Ripert, who is currently France's Ambassador to the UN, will be tasked with promoting a "strategic, coherent and comprehensive approach to supporting the humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction needs of crisis-affected areas" in concert with the Pakistani Government and international partners.
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UN HEALTH AGENCY URGES GREATER FUNDING FOR DISPLACED IN PAKISTAN

Extra funding is urgently needed to strengthen disease control efforts, re-stock rapidly dwindling supplies of essential drugs and improve access to reproductive health services in north-western Pakistan, where some 2 million people have been uprooted by violence, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Eric Laroche, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises, warned today that the agency could run out of supplies of some key drugs within two or three weeks without an injection of funding.

Dr. Laroche is currently in Pakistan to assess the situation and support the agency's efforts to bring relief to civilians in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Fierce fighting between Government forces and armed militants, especially in the Swat Valley, have displaced waves of people this year, and left UN agencies scrambling to assist.

Dr. Laroche said that while he has been impressed by the level of services he has seen inside camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), he remains concerns about the vast majority of displaced who are now living with host communities in Pakistani towns and villages.

"The problem is, how we can reach these people," Dr. Laroche said in an interview with UN Radio. "How can we make sure these people are going to be served the proper way?"

Dr. Laroche said it was vital to reinforce existing support structures and therefore to increase the number of health-care and other workers who can help the displaced, particularly women.

The Assistant Director-General noted that ethnic Pashtun women prefer not to be treated by male doctors or medical staff.

"Therefore we need to have other women, Pashtun women doctors, Pashtun women workers, health workers, to be taking care of them… This is a major challenge."

But he stressed that a lack of donor support for the health response to the situation in north-western Pakistan is particularly worrying.

"We have gotten only 27 per cent of what we were asking for. And what we are asking for is not even 10 per cent of the overall [total]. We are asking for $4 million."
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