Listen to head of mission Benoit De Gryse talk to BBC Radio 4 about the challenges to MSF's work in Pakistan
Benoit de Gryse, an MSF head of mission in Pakistan, spoke to BBC Radio 4 on 4th August 2010. In this interview, he discusses the challenges posed to MSF's efforts in the country as severe flooding continues.
Transcript
[INTERVIEWER] Can you tell us what it is that aid agencies like yours need there?
[de GRYSE] I think what we need is an urgent response to this massive devastation that we've seen on the ground. So far we've been really monitoring the situation as much as possible to identify pockets of people who need priority help and we are seriously reinforcing our activities on the ground, reinforcing our existing projects because we've been on the ground before and opening new sites for projects in different areas of the two affected provinces, being the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and Baluchistan Province.
[INTERVIEWER] When you say an urgent response, is this also from the Pakistani authorities, from the military and from, just all the services there.
[de GRYSE] I think yes. It's a difficult question to answer because we have seen that response has been rather quick, but on the other hand also we see that the scale of this devastation is so big that it's impossible to reach all the people and all the places at the same time which at this moment is creating a lot of and frustration and anger in the population which of course is understandable. The question is also how realistically it would be to expect government military to respond properly to this size of destruction.
[INTERVIEWER] Although we hear from a general within the military that, who has been travelling around by helecopter, saying that the operation to reach many of those who have been cut off is almost complete, were his words.
[de GRYSE] well for example we ourselves are now boarding a helicopter in about one hour to see exactly what's on the ground. My gut feeling would say that this is maybe a bit too optimistic. We actually have fears that there's a lot pockets of people, especially in the upper districts of Swat and Dir that have not been identified yet. The major cities around Peshawar like Nowshera and Charsadda which have been identified as majorly destroyed have been maybe mapped but outside I think there is definitely mapping to do.
[INTERVIEWER] So it's just the basic job of getting, I suppose, a logistical operation in place so that you can get food and clean water to people.
[de GRYSE] Yes, Medecins sans Frontieres is now focussing on two priorities, not food but water and access to medical care. Clean water is basically, well, it's a priority anyhow and it's also preventive towards prevention of epidemics such as cholera. Secondly, of course, having access to medical care is a priority anyhow, general consultation like primary health care but at the same time also being able to respond to trauma, people that were affected by floods and that are now in need of urgent care. So those are the axes. But as you said it's a logistical operation: we're flying in two more planes full of relief aid tomorrow and by the weekend mainly consisting of water, items for water distribution, non-food items such as hygiene kits, shelter kits, kitchen kits, that at least provide some basic care to the people.
[INTERVIEWER] Benoit de Gryse, thank you very much.