Consolidated Weekly Sitrep

1. Security
2. Air Operations
3. Immigration and Customs
4. Infrastructure and Static Road Assessment
5. Logistics Coordination
6. Civil Military Logs
7. Fuel
8. NFI Pipeline
9. Road Status
10. Warehousing
11. Commodity Availability
12. Other Information

1.    SECURITY

General
The security situation in Pakistan has largely returned to normal since the end of President Bush's visit on the weekend of March 3rd to 5th.

• Protests and strikes over the cartoon of the prophet Mohammed published in certain European newspapers have also calmed.

Bagh
The security situation in Bagh has been predominantly calm.

• Sporadic political meetings in preparation for the coming elections have occasionally slowed traffic but no other impact has been reported.

Batagram
Operations to Meira camp were shut down on March 13th due a meeting of religious leaders from Peshawar.

• Activity was shut down in Batagram and Chatterplain for three hours on March 14th due to a procession and gathering held for the visit of former cricketer and current PTI (opposition party) chairman Imran Khan.

The use of escorts for movement outside Batagram is still required by the Pakistan Military.

• The road between Batagram and Chatterplain remains an exception.

UN staff remain subject to a no movement curfew during Friday prayers.

2.    AIR OPERATIONS

General
UNHAS cargo and passenger flights were largely cancelled between March 11th and March 14th due to bad weather. 
Further cuts are being made to the UNHAS cargo fleet due to a funding shortfall. Three more Mi-8s will be redeployed on March 21st, bringing the UNHAS fleet down to 13 helicopters.

• UNHAS capacity is then expected to remain stable until June 1st, at which point it will be further reduced to 9 helicopters.
• UNHAS has requested the Pakistan Military for fuel support to assist in the continuation of UN flights.
• March 31st is the scheduled date for the UNHAS-tasked US Military Chinooks, German Stallions and Australian S-70s to cease operations.
  

UNHAS is expected to retain one to two Mi-8s for passenger service by request of agencies participating in the humanitarian operation.

• UNDSS recommends the continuation of this service to help alleviate the problem of road closures and Red No Go areas, and also to have aircraft available for medevac and emergency staff evacuation.

The FRC has forwarded an official request to the French government in a bid to keep the French fuel farm in Abbottabad until June 1st.

• If this is accepted, UNHAS helicopter operations will continue out of Abbottabad until June 1st. After this date it is planned to fly all helicopter operations out of Muzaffarabad.

ICRC has 20 hours remaining on one of their helicopters this month (amounting to a capacity of 150 to 200 MT) which they have offered to donate to agencies or NGOs.

• These hours will be tasked by UNHAS through the UNJLC cargo movement request procedure.

Bagh
The WFP operation to fly food into Bedhi has been completed. This was considered essential due to continuing road blockages in the area.

Three flying days were lost over the last week due to bad weather.

Muzaffarabad
The US Military will hand over its Muzaffarabad fuel farm to the Pakistan Military when it ceases operations in Pakistan on March 31st at the end of its mandate.

3.    CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION

The 14.10.05 exemption from customs duty, regulatory duty and sales tax offered by the Pakistan government for the import of relief items will be withdrawn as of 15.03.06 for the import of blankets, tents and tarpaulins.

• According to UNJLC LSS data, several agencies have these goods currently in the pipeline. UNJLC remains available should customs assistance in this matter be required. Please contact kevin.molen@wfp.org.

4.    INFRASTRUCTURE AND STATIC ROAD ASSESSMENT

General
UNJLC has collecting priority road GPS data and is now integrating this into the UNJLC map data set.

• These maps will serve to support the UNJLC cargo transport cell in determining the most cost effective mode of transport to the affected area.

• They are also being used to support analyses of returnee movement, help identify potential bottlenecks due to road inaccessibility and influence decisions about where to establish new facilities to serve the reconstruction efforts.

For maps and detailed road assessments go to www.unjlc.org/pakistan.
For map requests or queries please contact unjlcmapping@gmail.com .

Bagh
The road to Rawlakot via Nariola has been tracked and details entered into the UNJLC road set.

Batagram
A member of the UNJLC GIS team was in Batagram last week to work on completing the majority of priority area road assessments and GPS data collection.

• The Allai and Siran valley roads have now been largely assessed and the data has been entered in to the UNJLC GIS database.
• The majority of roads in this area constitute dirt tracks and will not support the passage of large trucks.

Muzaffarabad
Road assessments and GPS tracking have been hampered over the last week due to bad weather and dangerous road conditions.

5.    LOGISTICS

General
Due to a lack of response to requests for forecast figures, Atlas Logistique has been forced to cease transport for all agencies and NGOs which are not funded by ECHO and have not submitted forecasts.

Bagh
The UNICEF Schools Project is now underway, resulting in increased Bagh area cargo transport requirements.

Atlas and GOAL have been asked to pay a 700 rupee tax on each vehicle they rent.

• UNJLC has investigated the matter and has advised that according to the authorities in Islamabad, no royalty or tractor/trolley tax exists.

Batagram
As of Monday 13th, all UN agencies ceased active involvement in the return process until further notice from Islamabad.

• The status of returns already completed in the Batagram area as of March 15th is as follows (source: OCHA):

     Initial total individuals     Individuals remaining     Families returned total
Meira     14,450    11,522    530
Maidan     2,805    2,127    145
Banian     252    198    9
Kund    500    500    0
Battera    1,757    1,421    56
Total     19,764    15,768    666

*Size of family is based on an average of 6 members per household.
.
IOM has arranged 50 vehicles as of Monday 20th to assist in the return process.

• This will increase to approximately 100 over the course of next week.

Logs Cluster meetings in Batagram will be reinstated as of next week.

Muzaffarabad
A tasking board will be established this week to provide information on cargo movement in the Muzaffarabad area and enable assessment teams to survey the appropriate roads prior to tasking.

UNJLC has been working with local agencies to assess the need for forward hubs.

• This would enable cargo to be moved forward during periods of road accessibility into zones of operation known to suffer from landslides and dangerous road conditions in times of bad weather, thereby lessening reliance on air cargo transport. 

IOM is collaborating with the Pakistan military to produce gabions for road repair.

6.    CIVIL-MILITARY LOGS

Nothing further to report

7.    FUEL

Nothing further to report

8. NFI PIPELINE

General
UNJLC has been using the LSS (Logistics Supply System) to compile pipeline data from agencies and NGOs participating in the humanitarian operation. The goal of this project has been to provide an overview of NFI data and provide for forward planning.

• The incoming/on order data as of March 14th has now been released.
• The stock balance and cumulative distribution figures for February are also available alongside draft five of the total operation summary and the March pipeline projections by road and air.
• All LSS figures and products compiled by UNJLC have now been published on the UNJLC website. These include reports, maps, graphs, summaries and projections to date from the start of the project. They can be found at www.unjlc.org/pakistan/supply_chain/.
• The UNJLC cargo movement request procedure is prioritising cargo transport in favour of those agencies and NGOs who have provided their pipeline information to assist in forward planning.

UNJLC is offering informal LSS training sessions to interested parties. These will be broken down into three sections for general information, logistics, and data/IT.

• The sessions will be held on Friday March 17th, Monday March 20th and Friday March 25th.

• Further workshops can be organized on request. For more information and booking please contact tania.regan@wfp.org .

The UNJLC cargo coordination cell has reported a backlog of 3834 MT of goods awaiting transport, of which 3,832 MT is for air movement.

9. ROAD STATUS

General
For latest road status updates and corresponding maps, see www.unjlc.org/pakistan.

Bagh
Rain over the weekend and start of the week led to many closures in the Bagh area.

• Bagh to Sudan Ghali has been cut off by a combination of landslides, road subsidence and electrical fires caused by damaged pylons.
• Rockfalls and landslides are predicted on most routes and extreme caution is advised.

Batagram
The recent rains caused new landslides between Bana and Tandol.

• The road has now been reopened.

There is a significant amount of repair work being done on the Thakot-Bana road.

Muzaffarabad

• Most roads east of Muzaffarabad are once again considered Red No Go by UNDSS due to large landslides and rockfall.

10. WAREHOUSING

General
WFP interagency warehousing was established to assist in the distribution of relief goods for the Pakistan emergency.

• With the transition from relief to recovery, WFP is now requesting all actors in the operation to communicate their potential interagency warehousing requirements for the relief and recovery phase of the mission.
• UNJLC is currently working on accessibility maps which could potentially assist in planning for new warehouse locations during the return and recovery period.

For the latest summary of warehouse capacity, location maps and contacts, go to www.unjlc.org/pakistan.

Bagh
Interagency warehousing is full and all agencies are advised to ensure that sufficient space is available before shipping relief goods to the district.

• GOAL is due to leave its Chamiati temporary warehouse site next week.  STC UK is potentially interested in taking over the location.

Batagram
7x9 storage units are currently available in Chatterplain. Interested parties should file a formal request with WFP logistics.
ACF have been in Rashang to assess the current lack of road accessible storage space.  Their current location is near the helipad but is difficult to access by vehicle.

• A location has been identified for additional road accessible 7x9s.

Muzaffarabad
The WFP operation in Muzaffarabad will be slowing down in the near future as the returns process gets underway.

• At that time any spare WFP storage capacity will be made available for interagency use.

11. COMMODITY AVAILABILITY

For details of suppliers in the affected area see the UNJLC yellow pages at www.unjlc.org/pakistan.

12. OTHER INFORMATION

General
Based on requirements from the hubs and difficulties on the part of agencies in finding alternative accommodation and offices outside the UN base camps, a proposal has been submitted and approved to keep many of the camps open past the original March 31st closure date.

Abbottabad
The Abbottabad camp exists to support the French fuel farm and UNHAS.

• If the fuel farm is kept at Abbottabad until June 1st, the camp will be maintained until this time.

Bagh
The Bagh camp will be maintained until May 15th, closure of the camp will take place by May 31st.

Batagram
The Batagram UN staff accommodation camp will be maintained until May 15th, closure of the camp will take place by May 31st.

• Office arrangements in the Batagram View hotel will remain available until May 31st.
• The Batagram camp currently uses Red Cross water equipment which is due to be removed on April 15th. The issue is being addressed.

Garhi Habibullah
The base camp at Garhi Habibullah will be closed by March 31st.
   
Muzaffarabad
The Muzaffarabad camp will remain operational until June 15th, closure is planned by June 30th.

• Downsizing of the camp will take place over this period.