ABBOTABAD, 29 June (IRIN): Sitting in a hardware shop waiting for glass panes for his house, Salim Ahmed, 29, looks up anxiously every few minutes at the skies.
He is aware that the seemingly innocuous, fluffy (harmløse og fjerlette) clouds floating overhead can quickly turn more threatening. Already, many of Pakistans quake-affected areas have been hit by rains which signal the full force of the monsoon may only be days away.
– The rains have come early in many areas. Smaller roads are blocked, and because the hillsides are already damaged by the earthquake, landslides will inevitably take place in larger numbers this year, Salim told IRIN.
Salim is locked in a race against time to rebuild his house in a village 40 km from Abbotabad, a hillside town of 300.000 people which is 120 km from Islamabad.
– I need material quickly now, and have come to Abbotabad to get what I can in bulk (få så meget som muligt med). The tiny roads leading to villages are already in a bad state and will get blocked off soon, said Salim.
His brother Farid added: – In fact if it starts raining now, we may never get home, and how can we build anyway in torrential downpours?
Everywhere, across the quake-hit areas of northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, local people and relief agencies are aware of the dangers the monsoon brings. The first rains, which began to fall three days ago, have created landslides blocking off smaller roads.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan meteorological office forecast widespread thunderstorms and rain over the Muzaffarabad and Abbotabad areas, as well as in other quake-affected regions.
The weather map shows dark, monsoon clouds rapidly drifting across from India, threatening to engulf Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and many victims fear the rains will not only create road blockades, but also effectively halt construction work.
– Each year, the monsoons create havoc (kaos), with torrents (vilde strømme), floods (oversvømmelser) and landslides. This year it will certainly be worse, said Raja Qayyum, 34, a tea stall owner in Abbotabad.
Qayyum returns home periodically to visit his brothers who are still living in their village in the Neelum Valley, but he has shifted his own family of five to Abbotabad for safety, he said.
Aid workers meanwhile concede that eight months after the October 8 earthquake, relief operations are now being impaired by landslides. The situation has been aggravated by severe funding cutbacks, which have taken many helicopters out of operation, removing a vital lifeline to villages in otherwise inaccessible areas.
– The earthquake has destabilised mountain terrain and increased the frequency of landslides, Brian Isbell, head of the UN Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC) in Islamabad, said recently, as the first monsoon showers fell across the quake zone.
The blockades already reported on some roads are also making it impossible for some victims to return, while others, fearing long weeks of new isolation in their villages, have once more started heading towards larger towns down country.
– We cannot live outdoors in the rain, or build our homes. I am taking my family to relatives in Rawalpindi and will return after the rainy season ends, Alamgir Khan, 38, from Garhi Habibullah said.
The Pakistani government said earlier in June that at least 11.000 people would be evacuated from Muzaffarabad and surrounding villages, considered at high risk from landslides and flooding, ahead of the monsoon.
However, several days of heavy rain have delayed a planned evacuation of 1.025 earthquake-affected families from 23 villages in Muzaffarabad by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
– This is a new emergency as monsoon rains have arrived early this season, Muzaffarabad Commissioner Sardar Nawaz told the media on 27 June.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Muzaffarabad has meanwhile warned that keeping roads open is crucial to the continuation of the relief operation.
Pakistani army engineers, who have remained busy with road repair operations since the quake, can once more be spotted on many roads continuing with the task, made more arduous (besværlig) by the rain.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
