November 20, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 21, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 19: The government has planned to shift internally displaced people from Mardan and Charsadda to the newly-established Jalozai camp to protect them from biting cold.

“The process of shifting IDPs from Sheikh Yasin Town Mardan, Dir, Nowshera and Charsadda will start from November 24. They will be shifted to Jalozai where 800 winterised tents have been setup for them,” said officials of health department. According to them, one tent would house one family.

They said that total 3,000 tents would be erected to house as many families over 1,600 kanal in Jalozai. The government had planned to start shifting of displaced families from Charsadda, Dir, Nowshera and Mardan from Friday last but the move was deferred following restrictions on the movement of UN officials. At present, according to World Health Organisation, 51 per cent of the inhabitants of the camps had Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) due to lack of protection against cold.

To put brakes on diseases among the IDPs, the government decided to set up new camp in Jalozai with winterised tents and shift them there from Dir, Nowshera, Charsadda and Mardan.

After shifting 5,000 IDPs from Mardan to Jalozai, 3500 persons presently living in Charsadda camp would also be shifted there. Even in Peshawar, the government hasn’t established winterised tents for IDPs due to which they are at the risk of diseases.

Since the establishment of camps, there were more than 40,000 consultations, which found that 19 per cent cases were of diarrhoea and ARI. The prevalence of scabies was four per cent, unexplained fever six per cent, suspected malaria three per cent and blood diarrhoea one per cent.

The disease early warning system (DEWS) of the WHO indicated that there was a potential threat of the outbreak of communicable disease in the camps.

The United Nations, which is providing financial and technical support to the provincial government for the assistance of the IDPs, last week asked its staffers to stay away from the camps owing to law and order situation. On Tuesday, the UN again allowed its personnel to work for the IDPs but only in emergency cases. According to Provincial Disaster Management Authority director general about 400,000 families migrated to settled districts of Frontier province when army launched operation in Bajaur tribal region to flush out militants in August this year.

Officials say that about 32,000 of the displaced persons live in 12 camps set up by the government in Dir, Charsadda, Mardan and Peshawar, while 67,776 persons stayed with their fiends and relatives. With the onset of the winter season, the UN in collaboration with the government planned to establish winterised tents so the inmates, especially children, could be saved from diseases such as ARI.

About 15 per cent of the children residing in these camps, according to UN, suffer from malnutrition and they are more vulnerable to chest and respiratory diseases due to chilly season.

Now, the government has decided to set up only winterised camps to save IDPs from ailments. The displaced persons in the main Kacha Garhi camp in Peshawar have also been given additional sheets to protect them from cold. The government has already appealed to UN and relief organisations to provide blankets to IDPs.