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Afghanistan's Refugee Situation Approaches Crisis Proportions
QUETTA, Pakistan, Sept 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As the Afghani refugee situation approaches crisis proportions, the United Nations Saturday began sending the first food supplies into Afghanistan since the September 11th attacks on the United States, news agencies reported.
A convoy of trucks, organized by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), carrying 200 tons of food, warm clothing and books for children in opposition-controlled areas, left the Pakistani city of Peshawar Saturday, BBC's online service reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are fleeing amid threats of a U.S. military operation in retaliation for the September 11th terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, which have left 7,000 people assumed dead.
The U.S. claims that Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, who has been living in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban regime, is the prime suspect in the attacks. They have, however, as yet to release evidence linking him to the attacks, which bin Laden has categorically denied.
As money and relief materials pour into Pakistan, aid workers are still struggling to find sites to shelter the huge influx of refugees expected to flee Afghanistan in the event of U.S. attacks, news agencies reported.
More than half of the $584 million appeal launched by the United Nations to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan has been earmarked for agencies handling the refugee situation.
But given estimates that up to one million Afghans may try to cross into Pakistan, relief workers are desperately searching for suitable sites to at which to house them in the border provinces of Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier Province, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"Right now, we're up against a monumental challenge," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Peter Kessler.
"The simple fact of the matter is that there is no water. If the country is hit with a massive influx of refugees, it would be a logistical nightmare providing water," Kessler told AFP.
"The money may be there, but we're not even sure if there are enough water tankers in the whole of Pakistan to deliver the necessary supply," he added.
Baluchistan has suffered four years of consecutive drought, forcing up to 15,000 families to abandon their villages and take up a nomadic life in search of water.
The provincial capital of Quetta lacks enough water for its own population and a recent government report went so far as to suggest the city would have to be abandoned by 2020 if the situation remained unchanged.
"There is virtually no rainfall and underground water supplies have dried up. We are already in crisis," said Mohammad Younis Khalid, spokesman for the Baluchistan NGO Federation, which represents some 300 domestic non-governmental organizations.
Nearly all 100 refugee camp sites proposed by the Pakistani authorities are right on the border with Afghanistan, where the water shortages are the most acute and where water tables have dropped to up to 1,000 feet (303 meters) below the surface.
"Hygiene will be a major problem," Khalid said.
Another U.N. agency, the World Food Program, is preparing to send more than 500 tons of wheat to Kabul, Herat and northeastern Afghanistan.
A spokesman said they had been unable to supply the food before because of security conditions and lack of transport - but that more would now follow if the mission were a success.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) is meanwhile flying plastic sheeting and other supplies into Quetta, the Pakistani town most refugees have been heading for.
UNICEF spokesman Eric Laroche said the aid shipment that left Peshawar for Afghanistan on Saturday would have to be reloaded into smaller trucks and then carried by 4,000 donkeys - the only means of transport over the high mountain passes into Afghanistan, BBC reported.
Pakistan has closed its border to new arrivals and the UNHCR has warned that Afghans left inside their country face severe hardship.
About 50,000 refugees have flooded into Pakistan in the last two weeks.
Pakistan and Iran are already home to more than 3.5 million Afghans - the largest refugee group in the world.
Relief agencies say the number of Afghans in need of food and shelter in Afghanistan and bordering countries has risen from 5.5 million to 7.5 million.
The situation has been made worse because international aid workers were advised to leave the country after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
"An already dire situation is approaching crisis point," said Kenzo Oshima, a U.N. emergency relief coordinator.
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