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21 Oct 05 - End of deployment |
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Friday, 21 October 2005 |
We were visited today by a British forces team of two who are bringing three Chinook helicopters for use by the UN. The relief effort is moving into a more intensive phase facilitated by the opening (and recording of) routes. Our maps update the route information every day and a host of aid workers report back on the conditions they find. The biggest worry is lack of tentage. Tonight we produced a map that shows the provision of tentage across the districts. These statistics (best estimates) tell us that the requirement for tents is 455,726 and tents delivered is 62,075. A huge discrepancy and an indication of the magnitude of the task facing the relief effort.
Our two Pakistani GIS experts from the Worldwide Fund for Nature worked with us today and made a good contribution. Salaman is going back tomorrow to Lahore where he is based, to try and develop a longer term GIS support from his organisation. Raza Shah, his colleague, will continue to work with us during the morning until we leave. Jonathan went by helicopter to Mansehra and Anne to Muzaffarabad. They made contact with the UN teams who had respectively asked for help from MapAction, and presented them with useful maps that they had spent the previous evening producing. They had some difficulties (an under statement) getting back but, although late, managed to produce their share of maps.
The Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) that takes over from us has asked us to leave our printers behind so they can be sent forward to the two UN teams that Jonathan and Anne visited. This will give those teams the ability to produce their own maps at A3 size obtained from the web. It's not an ideal situation as they do not have GIS experts but it is better than nothing.
All the GIS group have produced some impressive maps as individuals and as a 'collective' when required. The Chief of the UN Field Coordination Support Section (who was our boss in the coordination centre) sent us an email from Geneva where he has returned to attend an Inter-Agency meeting. He expressed appreciation for MapAction's efforts. It was a generous tribute, and I replied that we were glad to be of help during the relief efforts. We have forged very good relations with the UN contingent, and with many other agencies and organisations. This should be an advantage when we deploy on future operations and meet up with many of the same people: personal relations are important, and we have made many new friends.
This will be my last diary entry. We aim to depart the Centre at about midday Saturday. Then we shall sort out the kit and prepare for leaving. Phil has arranged for excess baggage allowance on the three airlines taking us home. Pakistani Airways has waived all excess charges, Emirates has given us 20 kg extra allowance, and Gulf Air has awarded us 10 kg extra each. The trick now is to so arrange the baggage that we get it back to UK in three different loads.
So: we enter, finally, the last few hours of the expedition. This has been about as complicated a relief operation as can be imagined. The problems are rooted in the physical geography of the disaster zone. MapAction has striven to meet the challenges in our own sector of the relief effort. We are proud to be a part of this great enterprise to aid the suffering victims.
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Deployment Diary 
