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The Stench of Death In Pakistan
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A Disaster To Rival the Tsunami
MUZARRAFABAD, 16th October 2005: The focus of the rescue effort after last weekendâs Pakistan earthquake is shifting from relief and rescue across the 20,000 sq. km affected by the tragedy. The need now is for temporary shelter as the weather closes in, and for planning for future rebuilding.
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Habitat for Humanityâs Pakistan representative Farhan Mall is traveling in affected areas north of the capital Islamabad where is meeting potential partner organizations.ÊÊ Ê Ê
ãDuring the past two days, I have visited many disaster struck areas around Mansehra and Muzaffarabad,ä he said. Ê
ãThe situation is worse than one can imagine.äÊ Ê
ãYou can smell the rotten human flesh from miles away from these cities.äÊ Ê
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| Nowhere to go: waiting for help |
Mall described a situation where people are sitting on the sides of roads and near their destroyed houses.ÊFood and clothing are available, but the ãmost urgent need at this moment is shelter because this is the mountainous area and it gets very cold at nightä.Ê Ê
In the coming days, nighttime temperatures in the higher areas are expected to fall to zero degrees centigrade.ÊThere are fears are that many children who have survived the earthquake will not be able to survive the cold if shelter is not provided within days. Access is getting with roads restored and patients are being shifted to hospitals.Ê Ê
Said Mall: ãI talked to a nurse who is working in government hospital in Rawalpindi --Ê a city about 10 km from Islamabad -- she said that the injured that are being brought to the hospital now have very serious infections. Worms can be seen in their wounds.äÊ
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| Awaiting help: homeless families in Muzarrafabad |
Morgues in the hospitals of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and many other small cities, are full of dead bodies and there is nobody left alive in families to claim them.ÊThe government is now thinking of burying them.
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Said Mall: ãThe government, along with teams from various countries, is trying its best to help the people but the affected area is so big and difficult to reach.äÊ
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ãThere are some places where you canât even reach by helicopters; even in the normal times, people used to go there by foot or use horses to transport the goods to these areas.ä
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| Collapse: remains of a car in earthquake-stricken Pakistan |
The scale of the disaster could rival last Decemberâs tsunami as satellite images cannot differentiate between village houses with roofs and those with collapsed roofs.ÊAccording to recent reports, only 10 per cent of families have some kind of shelter.Ê
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There are hundreds of villages where nobody has reached with any kind of assistance.
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The death toll is very high compared to official figures, said Mall. For example, in Muzzaffarabad about 70 per cent of the rubble is laying as it was on the first day. ãNobody knows how many people are there under the rubble.ÊOne can easily tell by the smell in and around the city that there are still thousands of bodies.ä
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The official death toll is nearly 40,000.
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Pakistan Earthquake 
