2005/102

UN INTER-AGENCY ASSESSMENT TEAM IN ZARAND TODAY

TEHRAN, 26 February (UNIC): The United Nations system in the Islamic Republic of Iran is sending an inter-agency assessment mission to the quake stricken areas around Zarand in Kerman province today.

The step is being taken in consultation with the Ministry of Interior’s Natural Disaster Taskforce and the provincial Governor General’s office in Kerman. The team will seek to assess the immediate and medium term needs of the people living in the quake affected areas.

The United Nations agencies have been closely monitoring the situation in the affected areas. The Resident Coordinator’s Office and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been in direct contact with the Taskforce and the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

United Nations teams reached the affected areas soon after the earthquake. The UNICEF Representative Kari Egge, who was traveling in the area, went immediately to the site to assess the situation for herself. The WHO Representative, Dr. Mubashar Riaz Sheikh also visited Kerman and met officials from the provincial government to discuss arrangements to deal with the health emergency created by the earthquake.

UNICEF has dispatched 528 emergency latrine slabs, 273 plastic sheets, 500 blankets and 3 tents for immediate use in the earthquake stricken villages. The tents will be used for psycho social counseling for children and survivors in the area. The Ministry of Health and UNICEF have been working very closely in the training of psychologists and psychiatrists after the Bam earthquake in 2003. Twentyfive social workers from the State Welfare Organization (trained by UNICEF) are already working in the identification, documentation, tracing and follow up of separated children. UNICEF will also provide 6 connexes for Early Child Care Centres, which will be run by the SWO in the most affected villages.

WHO and UNICEF have received a list of health related equipments from officials in Kerman and are categorizing the list on the basis of the urgency of requirement and availability. WHO will coordinate the list among the probable donors and relevant agencies. The list covers the items needed for further equipping the hospitals at Zarand and Kerman to respond to the emergency. WHO has also extended all its technical and logistic support to the local government to address the health issues in emergency. It is also providing support in developing the plan of action for the team on mental health counseling and training of the disease surveillance team. WHO is expected to provide the financial and technical support to the 10 training courses each of six days duration for 300 primary health care workers on operational disease surveillance. This training is expected to start next Saturday. An epidemiologist has been mobilized by WHO country office from outside Iran to provide technical assistance to operationalize the diseases surveillance system at Zarand. The epidemiologist is expected to reach Tehran latest by Sunday.

UNDP has dispatched emergency relief items consisting of tents, beds, heaters and blankets for immediate use in the affected areas. UNDP HQ has also approved an emergency allocation of USD100,000 towards humanitarian and emergency assistance for immediate release. The funds will be used, among other priorities: to strengthen the UNDP/Bam field coordination programme to expand its operations and coordination support for Zarand; to develop foundations for recovery programmes in Zarand in close consultation with the national and local authorities; and to support government efforts in coordination and rehabiliation and recovery. A UNDP mission is in Bam on a project to demonstrate of earthquake-resistant building technologies using the shake-table test.  The UNDP shelter project in Bam is being reviwed to expand and replicate its programme activities and methodologies to Zarand during the recovery activities.

As a contribution to the common relief effort to assist victims of the disaster, UNHCR is donating around 100 tents and 1,500 blankets. The donations will be arriving from UNHCR’s offices in Yazd, and Zahedan provinces. According to UNHCR, among the considerable toll of dead and injured are a number of Afghan refugees living in the Zarand area.

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