Update on the Earthquake
I should tell you that I was in Nahrin myself for about two hours [yesterday]. What you see there is a lot of destruction. It is a poor area that has been very much affected by drought in the recent past, and also an area that saw a lot of fighting in these last years. One positive piece of news is the estimate of the number of deaths, in the hours that followed the earthquake on Monday, the reality is not proving to be as bad as that. Of course, there is a sad loss of life but as of yesterday, the general view is that the number of dead is probably between 800 and 1,000, hopefully closer to the lower end of this range.

Of course, as you know, I am allergic to estimates because they always tend to change, particularly in a situation like this which is not frozen. One because the earthquake continues. Yesterday, just in this period I was there, at least three tremors took place; two of them, from the perspective of someone just standing there, felt a lighter quake, but one of them was quite strong. Then you can understand why the people are afraid of going back inside the houses because as the quakes continue. It is really very powerful, noisy and everything moves.

As you know we have teams [on the ground], and these teams are composed of Government representatives, United Nations officials, NGOs, ISAF is also there. Representatives of these different groups go [in] reconnaissance missions, be it by helicopter or by road, and they have done an aerial reconnaissance yesterday in a radius of some 15 kilometres from Nahrin, as well as by road to some 42 villages in that area, showed there was damage to some 90 percent of the houses, and of course damage in different degrees. Some 25 percent of the buildings were considered to have totally collapsed, 60 percent had suffered serious damage, by that we mean collapsed wall or collapsed roof. No major population movements have been reported right there and in many locations local residents have been observed to be building makeshift shelters using local materials.

As you know, we have estimated a need of 20,000 tents, we have as of yesterday and through the night, we should have on site some 15,000 tents. This small gap of 5,000 will be met in the hours to come. In terms of immediate assistance, in addition to shelter, the other major concern is food. WFP has been able to place in the area enough food for the next three months for the whole population, so that is covered.

Medical assistance is also on-going. There is a MSF clinic established in Nahrin. There are also medical mobile teams roaming around, and the more serious cases are transferred to the Pul i Khumri hospital, and that is happening with ambulances that are now arriving in larger numbers to facilitate this kind of transport. Also other vehicles have been made available for medevac of those who cannot be treated in the villages and need to go to Nahrin or Pul i Khumri hospital. There are both ambulances and medevac vehicles for that purpose.

Yesterday an ISAF convoy of seven trucks, left Kabul for Nahrin, as you know that takes about 15 hours. It took engineers, mine clearance experts and logistic teams. Also, yesterday there was one ISAF flight to Mazar in the afternoon which carried some five metric tons of supplies that included tents, plastic sheets and jerry cans. There were also two American helicopters that took off directly for Nahrin, and they carried tents, jerry cans and plastic sheets as well as emergency health kits from WHO and other supplies from UNICEF. We have 30 metric tons of supplies positioned at the Kabul airport, ready to go to the region today, Thursday, that includes tents, jerry cans, plastic sheets, clothing and further medical equipment. This is going, from Kabul airport, to be transported by ISAF planes, the first one must have left 8 o'clock this morning, the second one is scheduled for 11.30 in the morning.

I think that the other two points I would like to make on the relief effort, one of them is the very speedy action of NGOs, UN agencies and above all, the Interim Administration that immediately deployed to the area Ministers and other personnel, and all of these people have been working together. I personally found it to be quite an impressive sight, though surrounded by destruction you had these fairly simple tents that were where all the different agencies and Government officials are working from, also equipped with quite impressive state-of-the-art technology that allows them to communicate with Kabul by Sat phone or computer and allows them to keep a tracking system of all the supplies, of what is coming in and where it is going to and who is in charge of delivering each.

The relief seems to be under control and people are receiving supplies and what is required, we have to start thinking about longer-term solutions. Tents are very good, they provide immediate shelter, but of course it is not a long-term solution. We have to start looking at housing, food security is a problem. The region has [had] drought for many years, the next harvest will be minimal so food assistance will have to continue and we will have to look [at] the economic impact of this earthquake. The main economic activity [in the region] is agriculture which is a male-led activity so you have to look into what happens to the women who are now widowed and have to support their families. You also have to look at the children who have been left orphans. You also have to look at the injured, though as of yesterday the number was not very high, we are talking about 300 of them but what do those injuries mean in terms of them being able to be an economic actor; will they become handicapped, what kind of activities will they be able to perform? These are some of the matters in people's minds already now even though we are only a few days away from the earthquake.

To conclude this portion of the briefing I would just like to note that in addition to expression of support there are supplies being donated by other Afghan provinces, in spite of also going through difficulties. This information was given to us last night by the Afghan Interim Administration. [The relief effort] is possible thanks to the contribution and donations by a number of countries, among them Germany, Japan, the Russian Federation, the U.S., the European Commission, these and others have been very active, also participating in the coordination meetings that take place here in Kabul, involving Government, UN, NGOs and donors.

We were informed yesterday that Chairman Hamid Karzai declared today a national day of mourning.

At the back of the room an update issued by UNHCR in Geneva on the action they are taking regarding the earthquake. We also have one from WHO with what they are sending to the region. Alejandro Chicheri from WFP will tell you about a media event here Saturday, not earthquake related.

Security Council Consultations on Afghanistan
Finally, I want to mention to you the Security Council had an open debate on Tuesday on Afghanistan. Yesterday the Security Council had closed consultations and in the coming days, a Resolution on the establishment of the new United Nations mission here in Afghanistan [is expected].

Talking Point:

WFP Media Opportunity - Alejandro Chicheri
Inauguration of the WFP school feeding programme at the District 11, Ustad Khalillah Khalili High School in Khairkhana Sarak-e-Tapa, Kabul. This will take place on Saturday 30 March 2002 at 9.30am where the Deputy Minister of Education will attend.

Questions and Answers

Q: Are you fairly confident that every area affected by the earthquake has been surveyed?
Spokesman: I think the aerial reconnaissance missions have covered everywhere. By road no, we have not gone everywhere.

Q: Usually with disasters, the death toll starts low and rises, why has it started high and then gone down?
Spokesman: I do not know, I cannot tell you what references were used for the estimates provided by the local authorities, but accidents are not always like that. In some cases indeed, in many cases, it starts with high estimates and then it goes down. An example, is New York city last September. In this particular instance with the earthquake you are not talking about construction that people are hidden under debris, under rubble, because it is such simple construction -- mud houses with a few pieces of wood on top to hold the roof. You would not need heavy equipment to remove people, there is no steel, no heavy construction, there is just one floor, so the families themselves have been able to really find their loved ones who were killed and bury them. I do not think we will have surprises in the sense of huge constructions when people are buried under three or four storeys over them.

Q: How many were injured?
Spokesman: As of yesterday we had the number of 300. That is indeed unusual compared to the number killed because normally the injured are more than those killed. Maybe the statistics will be updated and we will get a better picture in the coming hours. Many people are being treated in the local villages.

Q: Question on the amount of aid being delivered and how much is getting through to the surrounding villages such as Burka.
Spokesman: They are getting there. I cannot give you a number or a percentage of how much has gone into each village or how many villages; that is what we call secondary distribution, has already started.

Q: For example, where the reconnaissance teams surveyed yesterday, had aid already gone in?
Spokesman: The reconnaissance teams are what they are called, reconnaissance teams, they go first before anything else and that is followed by the aid. They determine the needs and then based on that, and depending on what kind of road access there is, which will determine what kind of vehicle can take what kind of aid or if a helicopter will be required. This is how it happens.

Q: So it sounds like some villages may not have received aid yet.
Spokesman: Most probably. The capacity to deliver to so many different villages with these repeated small earthquakes that certainly had an impact on the roads, that is indeed an issue. Transport is a main concern. Many trucks are breaking down because either they are old or the roads are very bad, and one of the things we are looking at with the Interim Administration is the possibility of truck repair mobile units along the road that would also encourage traffic as a means to somehow bring back some economic activity, some economic life, and encourage the initiative of some of these drivers who are based in Mazar and Pul i Khumri, and many of these trucks, if not all of them, that are available for rental, have been rented and of course the difficulty is the rent goes sky high. Afghanistan is also a country where there is no insurance like in many other countries so they are not covered, therefore it is understandable that they need to project that into their costs, so there were to be some sort of vehicle repair facility it would very much help solve this problem and we are looking into that very actively.

Q: [inaudible]
Spokesman: No what I said was the reconnaissance missions by helicopter covered a 15 kilometre radius because that is the area affected by the earthquake.

Q: Did they notice diminishing damage the further out from Nahrin?
Spokesman: Yes, as you go further out the less damage there is. It is like a huge bowl surrounded by mountains so as you get closer to the mountains the less damage there is.

Q: As trucks are such a problem are we rounding up trucks in Kabul?
Spokesman: No we are not doing that. We have to look at the capacity of the roads in terms of numbers that can be absorbed.

Q: [inaudible]
Spokesman: The response was as fast as it was because one we had all these agencies and organisations on the ground and two because we had -- and by we I mean the international community, United Nations, NGOS -- we had in the region, in the north of the country, supplies for the internally displaced programme. All these supplies were already in the region therefore it was easy to deploy them so fast. One item that is not part of the normal relief items is matresses and therefore that is one thing that we have to bring in addition because it is not part of the relief assistance.

Q: Tell us a little more about the landmine threat.
Spokesman: Yes it was an area that was heavily mined, it was an area of fighting in recent years. The earthquake moves these mines and their markings, roads are covered by landslides, other areas are covered by landslides. We have experts already there, and more on the way as I have already mentioned, but we also have the equipment in the area if it is necessary for land removal, of course coordinated with mine experts on how to do that, if that were a specific area known to have mines or unexploded ordnances of any kind. I am afraid I will not be able to give you very accurate descriptions, for instance yesterday this earthquake that I mentioned when we were there, we do not have any reports of further victims or casualties but we do have reports of landslides.

Q: [inaudible]
Spokesman: [inaudible]

Q: Question on supplies.
Spokesman: We are okay with what is already on the ground and what is in the pipeline. Of course, lets see how the situation evolves. We do not know if there will be further earthquakes, we do not know what may arise. As it looks today for the immediate relief we are looking fine.

Q: Can you give us some indication of the state of the drought? What is the state of the harvest?
Spokesman: I do not have much to tell you right now. I am looking for someone to brief you all, specialised in this issue. The drought does not look like it is over. It looks like it will continue and the impact it will have on the harvest and the impact it will have on food assistance that will continue to be high. The extent of it we have to confirm but we are looking for an expert to give you a special briefing.