UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11: The United Nations on Tuesday launched a $272 million flash appeal for Pakistan’s earthquake victims. The appeal sought life-saving and early recovery activities for a six-month emergency phase in a remote region which provides enormous logistical difficulties with landslides cutting off many roads, allowing access only by foot or helicopter to areas where more than 80 per cent of buildings have been destroyed.

At a press conference in New York, the Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Hamsjoerg Strohmeyer, said heavy machinery and equipment were being acquired.

However, he pointed out that due to the extensive damage to access roads, heavy equipment needed for search and recovery mission will be airlifted by helicopters. But most of the equipment, he conceded, has to be carried by trucks once they are cleared.

“Due to strong and frequent aftershocks, survivors are afraid to return to buildings damaged by the earthquake,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)said.

“Many are sleeping in the open. There is an urgent need for winterized tents to house these people, as temperatures are beginning to drop, and winter is expected to start in three weeks.

“Medical care is also critically needed, as most of the hospitals and healthcare centres have been destroyed. Food and clean water are also in short supply,” it added.

The appeal will cover priority needs, including shelter (winterized tents, plastic sheets, blankets, mattresses), nutrition (pre-cooked canned food, high energy biscuits, survival rations), medicines (antibiotics, typhoid medicines, first aid and surgical kits, water purification tablets) and transport (helicopters).

“More than four million people are affected, of whom one million are in acute need of assistance and two million homeless,” OCHA said.

United Nations agencies are already on the ground bringing in convoys of relief aid.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has already begun distributing basic relief supplies for up to 100,000 people using its existing stockpiles throughout the region, including family tents, blankets and stoves.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is initially airlifting 200 tons of high-energy biscuits, sufficient for 240,000 people, vital in the first days of a natural disaster when survivors have no means to cook their own food.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has begun trucking in medical supplies, warning that tens of thousands of women in the affected areas are currently pregnant, and need adequate nutrition, medicines and ante-natal care to deliver safely.