PAKISTAN: Colder weather, disease, threaten displaced

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QUETTA, 27 September 2010 ( IRIN) - Inside their tent at a camp on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan, Meraj Sindhu helps his wife wrap their six-month-old son and two-year-old daughter in thin cloths widely used in Sindh Province as head scarves or turbans. Sindhu's wife, Sassui Bibi, tells IRIN: "The children cry with cold through the night." She, her husband, and her elderly mother-in-law huddle inside their tent trying to keep warm. Night-time temperatures in Quetta have dropped to around 12 degrees Celsius, according to the Pakistan Met Office, and dip to below freezing in mid-winter. "We are used to hot weather through most of the year, and besides we have none of the warm clothes we use during the winter," said Sindhu, from Jacobabad District, Sindh. "It was blisteringly hot when we fled [the floods] in early August and we came away with just the light clothes on our backs," he said. Sindhu and other displaced persons from Sindh say the wind that has begun blowing across Quetta as winter begins to set in, "adds to the feeling of bitter cold". "We are used to extremes. In winters it is freezing, summers are hot and the cold, dry winds of winter have started here. Usually by October we need warm clothes and heating in rooms," said Sadiq Jan, 60, a watchman engaged at the camp. "These unfortunate people are just not used to the conditions," he said. Cold weather can trigger disease Doctors are concerned about the health impact: "I have been receiving more patients - often those from Sindh - suffering upper respiratory tract infections, which may be linked to the change in weather," Yusuf Khan, a general practitioner who works at a charitable clinic near a makeshift camp, told IRIN. "Cold weather, and the crowding which results, is associated with more opportunities for person-to-person transmission of respiratory pathogens. So although cold weather doesn't in itself cause disease, it can increase the risk of transmission of certain communicable diseases such as ARIs, meningitis, measles, etc", Paul Garwood, the World Health Organization's communications officer, told IRIN. "Because of the harsh weather, the cold air and dust here, my wife has a hacking cough. She simply cannot sleep, neither can my three children who are also ailing and we are desperate to get back," said Karim Ullah, from a village near the town of Ghotki in Sindh. He is uncertain when this will happen "because some roads are still closed". The Pakistan Health Cluster Bulletin No 17 [ http://www.whopak.org/idps/documents/bulletins/Pakistan_Health_Cluster_Bulletin_No_17_1220910.pdf ] said: "Out of 5.3 million consultations conducted up to 10 September, 708,891 (13 percent) were for acute diarrhoea, 802,670 (15 percent) were for acute respiratory infections (ARI), 986,843 (18 percent) were for skin disease and 182,762 (3 percent) were for suspected malaria." The bulletin points out that ARIs are a leading cause of morbidity. UNHCR standing ready In the meantime, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is prepared to assist displaced persons who may still be in Quetta after winter sets in. Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR public information assistant in Quetta, told IRIN: "People have already started moving back. The return is spontaneous, but the provincial government is planning to facilitate the return by providing transport. UNHCR anticipates that before the winter approaches the majority of people would have gone back. However, if need be, we will continue supporting IDPs left in Quetta camps by providing additional blankets and other relief supplies." Khan said no specific data was available on IDPs currently in Quetta camps as many were on the move, while local authorities were working to restore road and rail links between Quetta and areas of return. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had reported 400,000 flood IDPs in Balochistan's Nasirabad Division in mid-September, over half from neighbouring Sindh Province. [ http://www.pakresponse.info/Default.aspx?tabid=87&ItemId=411 ] "I just want to go home. But I don't have even Rs 100 [US$1.17] in my pocket, so how will I manage to do so before winter here. We have heard it snows in Quetta, but that's not something we wish to see right now," said Karim Ullah. kh/at/cb © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org