|
DELIVERING FOOD AID TO AFGHANISTAN: BEATING
THE CLOCK
After launching its first airbridge
into Afghanistan this week, WFP is now sending food aid into Afghanistan
out of five countries - Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
& Uzbekistan - by road, rail, air and river.
The Agency is racing against time to replenish food stocks for
millions of hungry Afghans and to preposition food stocks before
winter snow cuts off vital overland routes.
| Logistic: latest developments
[revised 6/12] |
 |
After insecurity forced a two
week halt to its barge operation, WFP today hopes to
move food aid from Termez, Uzbekistan across river to Hairaton
in north Afghanistan |
|
A WFP C-130 airlifted
17 metric tonnes of wheat from Kulyab in Tajikistan to Faizabad
in NE Afghanistan on December 5 - the first airlift for several
days because of bad weather |
|
In November, WFP surpassed
its monthly food aid target of 52,000 tonnes,
delivering nearly 56,000 tonnes into Afghanistan |
|
Swedish Rescue Services
personnel remain on standby in Turkmenistan ready to move to
the Central Highlands, where the Agency must deliver 30,000
tonnes before snow bocks access |
November 23 - As WFP races against time
to deliver food aid before snow cuts off tens of thousands of hungry
Afghans, the Agency has launched its first humanitarian airlift
into Afghanistan since the current crisis began.
A Hercules aircraft, carrying approximately 17 metric tonnes
of wheat flour, today made the 30 minute flight from Kolyiab airport
in southern Tajikistan to Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan
in north east Afghanistan.
Weather permitting, the Agency plans to repeat the flight four times
per day over the coming weeks as it races to stockpile enough food
aid to see some 274,000 desperately hungry Afghans living in remote
north eastern locations through the winter months.
In total, the Agency estimates that it needs to move 9,000 tonnes
of wheat flour - a four month ration - into Faizabad before winter
snow cuts off isolated communities; the airbridge will supply 2,000
tonnes.
Trucks will then transport aid to the hungry in the districts of
Ragh (71,000 people), Darwaz (70,000), Shignan (25,000), Khwahan
(12,000), Sharibuzurg (39,000) and Yaftal (57,000).
WFP is using Russian-supplied heavy duty trucks equipped with snow
blades and snow ploughs to keep mountain roads in these areas open
for as long as possible.
SNOWBOUND
The onset of Afghanistan's harsh winter is posing WFP's most urgent
logistical obstacle in Afghanistan - and not just in the northeast.
The Agency estimates that snow will block overland access to some
870,000 vulnerable people, mostly subsistence farmers, spread across
the Central Highlands and the Panjsheer Valley as well as Badakhshan.
WFP needs to preposition some 55,000 tonnes of food aid to cover
these groups' food needs this winter - so far 40 percent has gone
in.
As a last option for snowbound areas, WFP Islamabad is drawing
up plans for an airdrop. Planes and personnel currently running
the Agency's Sudan operation are on standby.
ROAD, RAIL, RIVER, SEA AND AIR
The opening of the Tajikistan airbridge means
WFP is now delivering food aid into Afghanistan by road, rail, river,
sea and air.
Using Baltic ports, Russian railways, Pakistani roads and Ukrainian
aircraft, the Agency is stockpiling food at regional hubs inside
five countries: Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Hundreds of trucks are then being used to transport these commodities
along overland routes into Afghanistan, ready for delivery to the
six million vulnerable people the Agency has targeted over the next
six months (see guide).
In addition to the estimated 2,000 commercial vehicles already delivering
food aid inside Afghanistan, the Agency is steadily building up
its own fleet of some 850 trucks, many equipped with snow ploughs
and chains to combat Afghanistan's harsh winter road conditions.
WINNING THE STRUGGLE
Although shifting lines of battle have made
commercial truck drivers wary of travelling on Afghan road, this
massive logistics effort is getting the food through. Last week,
WFP announced that it had succeeded in reaching its monthly target
of 52,000 tonnes.
"We're winning the struggle to deliver food into Afghanistan,"
said WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini at a press conference
in London on November 16.
"We had been facing major challenges over the past weeks in
terms of insecurity on the ground and the onset of winter, but we've
pulled out all the stops and we're managing to push the large quantities
of food needed into Afghanistan." .
We're winning the struggle
to deliver food into Afghanistan
|
 |
| WFP
Executive Director Catherine Bertini |
|
|
The logistical lifeline does not just rely on the right transport.
None of this would be possible without the right staff or equipment.
WFP has mobilised emergency response personnel, specialist office
equipment suited to sub-zero temperatures, even experts to deal
with avalanche clearance.
LOGISTIC MIRACLES
The Agency's success in accelerating the food aid flow into
Afghanistan is not just down to maximising its corridors into
Afghanistan and upping trucking capacity.
A strategic decision to bypass logistics hubs in major Afghan cities
and send WFP food convoys directly to food insecure areas, where
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) offload and distribute the
food, has also paid off.
WFP has now signed distribution plans with more than 61 NGOs to
provide over 300,000 tonnes of food aid to six million people in
the next three-six months.
Each agreement stipulates how many people the NGO is feeding, the
quantity of aid they require for the next six months and where they
want WFP to deliver the food.
SPECIAL OPERATION
WFP's recent US$ 257 million appeal to feed six million people inside
Afghanistan includes a US$27 million logistics operation to augment
the UN's ability to deliver emergency aid fast and efficiently into
Afghanistan.
With some 40 years experience of delivering food aid into some of
the world's worst crisis spots, WFP was the natural UN choice to
co-ordinate logistics in the region.
The Special Operation will provide for the establishment of a regional
logistics network, a fleet of 190 trucks, airlifts and telecommunications.
TURKMENISTAN
Overland corridors: WFP has several logistical hubs in Turkmenistan
for cargo in transit to northern Afghanistan where some three million
Afghans need food.
Food commodities arrive here from the Estonian port of Riga, via
the former Soviet railway network, or are trucked in from Iran or
Osh in Kyrgyzstan - a 600 kilometre journey lasting seven to 10
days.
The western city of Herat will be supplied via Kushka while WFP
warehouses at Mazar-I-Sharif and Andkhoy - both 3-5 days away inside
Afghanistan - can be supplied from Turkmenabad or from Kerki, 200
km further south.
Latest developments
- With WFP racing against time to reach some
one million war- and drought-affected Afghans living in the remote
Central Highlands before winter snow blocks roads, the Agency
is augmenting its trucking capacity out of Turkmenistan.
50 heavy duty trucks, some fitted with snow ploughs, have been
airlifted from Estonia to Ashkabad for deployment in the region.
The vehicles need to cope with treacherous mountain roads and
sub-zero temperatures.
- The Swedish Rescue Service Agency (SRSA)
- a WFP standby partner - is deploying a team of 24 emergency
personnel to accompany the trucks and set up an operating cell
at Kushka inside Turkmenistan.
Working closely with WFP, the SRSA specialists will set up three
base camps in the Central Highland areas of Panjou, Bamyan and
Chachghuran, providing accomodation, fuel depots, office space
and vehicle maintenance services.
- A crack three-man team of arctic specialists
is in Islamabad awaiting security clearance to form an Avalanche
Control Unit. They will work hand in hand with the SRSA inside
Afghanistan. The team is funded by the Canadian Development Agency
(CIDA) through CARE Canada and consists of two men (Canada) and
one woman (Sweden).
Equipped with skis and snow mobiles, this team will assess mountain
passes. If they believe a road is vulnerable, they will trigger
an avalanche, before moving in snow ploughs to clear the way for
food convoys.
- With 38,000 families in Chaghcharan, Western
Highlands inaccessible via road from Quetta, Pakistan and Herat,
western Afghanistan, WFP is trucking food directly from Turkmenistan.
The Agency will position 6,000 tonnes, sufficient to feed the
vulnerable families for three months.
- WFP is using the Turkmenistan corridor to
reach the 436,000 hungry Afghans in the remote central/western
region of Ghor. The Agency estimates this province will require
21,800 tonnes of food aid over the next six months.
back to the top 
PAKISTAN
Overland corridors: WFP food commodities are shipped to the
southern Pakistan port of Karachi and off-loaded on to trucks which
are dispatched to warehouses at Quetta, 540 kilometres north in
Baluchistan Province on the Afghan-Pakistan border, as well as Peshawar,
1,706 km distant in the North West Frontier Province.
Quetta is WFP's centre for emergency food deliveries to south and
west Afghanistan. This small, dusty town is 1,010 km from Herat
in western Afghanistan - a journey which takes 8-10 days for WFP
trucks to complete.
The Agency is putting together a fleet of 25 seven-tonne trucks
and 30 huge 10-wheelers at Quetta in the Baluchistan desert.
Peshawar is the main regional hub for WFP food aid convoys to Kabul
- the Afghan capital is just 308 km from the Pakistan border - as
well as Kandahar and Jalabad
Latest developments
- At Bandar Abbas port, Iran, WFP started unloading 65,000 metric
tonnes of food aid from the US ship 'Overseas Juneau' on November
22. The cargo is being transshipped onto smaller 'daughter' vessels
which can then enter the port proper.
This food will be trucked to WFP regional hubs in Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
- The Peshawar-Kabul route is running but truck drivers will
only travel during the day due to the unpredictable security situation.
WFP resumed its deliveries out of Peshawar on November 19 after
fear of ambush forced a six-day suspension; six trucks safely
delivered their 100 tonne cargo to Jalalabad.
- WFP is now accessing the 100,000 hungry Afghans in the Panjsher
Valley directly from the Afghan capital.
- With the road from Quetta to Spinboldak just over the border
in Afghanistan safe to drive, WFP has delivered food aid to its
local warehouse for distribution in the immediate Spinboldak area;
some 16,800 people forced to flee their homes in the past two
months are currently living in camps in Spinboldak.
- Because of insecurity, the road from Quetta to Kandahar has
remained impassable for nearly four weeks.
back
to the top
IRAN
Overland corridor: WFP food commodities
arrive in Iran at the ports of either Bandar Abbas or Chah-Bahar.
From Bandar Abbas, food aid begins a 1,400 kilometre railway / truck
journey to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where the Agency has
recently enhanced its logistical base.
From Mashhad, food is either trucked to the western Afghan city
of Herat, crossing the border near Dogharun. Alternatively, food
aid will be sent to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
along the northern borders of Afghanistan.
The Chah-Bahar corridor which runs north to Zahehedan provides a
lifeline to the Afghan refugee camp at Zabol.
back
to the top
KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN
Airbridge: since November 23, WFP has been airlifting food
aid from Kolyiab airport in southern Tajikistan to Faizabad, the
provincial capital of Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan. From
here, food aid is put on trucks and transported to remote locations
across the northeast where more than 274,000 people need food aid.
Overland corridor: WFP food aid starts this 5,000 kilometre
journey to Faizabad at the Baltic ports of Riga, Estonia or Ventstils,
Latvia. The commodities are off-loaded and railed across 4,000 km
and four countries to WFP's regional logistics hub at Osh, Kyrgyzstan.
From here, lorries equipped to deal with towering mountain passes
take over, trucking the food another 1,000 km across Tajikistan
to a WFP warehouse at Ishkashim on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border.
Trucks then travel the 166 km to WFP Faizabad; by November 23, more
than 3,000 tonnes had been trucked into Faizabad along the Tajikistan
overland corridor.
Initially, WFP was also using Osh to truck food aid across the 4,000
metre high Anjuman Pass into the Panjsheer Valley - a week-long
journey of 522 km - but the Agency is now able to access the 100,000
hungry Afghans in the Valley directly from Kabul in the south.
Latest developments
Heavy snow is already starting to block overland corridors into
the mountainous interior of North-east Afghanistan, as WFP aims
to preposition enough food aid to last the 274,000 vulnerable Afghans
in Badakhshan for the winter months.
The Agency needs to move 16,000 tonnes of wheat flour into the region
before the end of year, including 9,000 to Faizabad.
To this end, WFP is building-up its fleet of trucks and taking measures
to keep treacherous mountain roads and passes open for as long as
possible, while an airlift will transport 2,000 tonnes of food aid
into Faizabad. By December 5, half of the 16,000 tonnes required
had been delivered.
The six districts which WFP is trying to reach in north east Afghanistan
before winter snow severes road links are: Ragh (71,000 hungry people),
Darwaz (70,000), Shignan (25,000), Khwahan (12,000), Sharibuzurg
(39,000) and Yaftal (57,000).
- On December 5, WFP's airlift to Faizabad
from Kolyab airport resumed after being disrupted by bad weather.
To date, WFP Hercules aircraft have flown about a tenth of the
2,000 tonnes of wheat flour the Agency plans to airlift to Faizabad.
- 300 4x4 heavy duty trucks equipped with snow
ploughs and chains have been deployed from Russia under a tri-partite
agreement between WFP, the Russian emergency ministry and the
UK government's Department for International Development (DFID).
Together with tens of local trucks, the WFP fleet is delivering
food aid to rural areas in north east Afghanistan where snow has
not bocked access roads.
- To combat spiralling fuel prices, WFP has
prepositioned 60,000 litres of fuel at Ishkashim and Osh; this
is being made available to truckers transporting WFP food aid
at the much reduced rate of 30 cents per litre compared to 60
cents on the open market.
- In addition, WFP will establish a logistics
base at Ishkashim on the Afghan-Tajikistan border where temperatures
can plunge to -30 degrees.
back to the top
UZBEKISTAN
River corridors: to ease pressure on the Turkmenistan
humanitarian corridor, WFP has re-opened the Termez river port in
Uzbekistan to ship food aid by river barge into northern
Afghanistan. The Uzbek city, which was last used by WFP in 1998, can
be reached by road and railway and has an airport able to land any
kind of aircraft.
Termez, once a bustling stop on the ancient Silk road, is the main
Uzbek city on the Amu Darya river, which is 800 metres wide at the
site of the cargo port.
There are four makeshift barges stationed in Termez. All the barges
are former pontoons which have had sides installed. All must be
pulled by tugboats. Three barges have a capacity of 400 metric tonnes
and the fourth can transport 120 tonnes - but low water constraints
mean maximum capacity will be limited to 250-300 tonnes.
It takes two-and-a-half to three hours for a tugboat to tow a
barge upriver from Termez to Hairaton Port on the Afghan side of the
border - a distance of about 18 kilometres. From Hairaton, 82 km
north of Mazar-I-Sharif, food can be moved to other northern
provinces.
Latest developments
- On December 6, WFP expected to resume its
Termez barge operation by sending aid across the river Amu Darya
to Hairaton.
Insecurity in northern Afghanistan had forced the Agency to halt
its barge operations for two weeks. During this peirod, food aid
was moved into the north along more stable supply routes.
- The first WFP barge to make the Termez crossing
departed for Hairaton on November 15. It was loaded with 200 tonnes
of WFP wheat flour.
- The Agency plans to barge 16,000 tonnes into
northern Afghanistan from Uzbekistan.
back
to the top
|
