ABBOTABAD, 11 January 2008 (IRIN) - Speaking over a crackly phone line from the village of Nambli in Pakistan's Himalayan foothills, and an hour's drive from the city of Abbottabad, Muhammad Qayyum describes his plight:

"For two days, my family and I, including three children under 10, have lived on potatoes and the milk our goat provides," the 35-year-old said. "We have run out of all other stocks and the snow makes it impossible to acquire them," he said, explaining that blocked roads meant even local markets were not being supplied.

Exceptionally heavy snow and torrential rains over the past week have paralysed much of northern Pakistan, resulting in acute hardship for people across the mountainous region.

Major roads have hitherto been routinely cleared of snow but prevailing weather conditions in much of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir make the task all but impossible at present.

"People are trapped in their homes by snow and the very heavy snowfall makes it impossible to send relief to them," Abdul Manan, a social worker in Abbottabad, 100km north of the capital, Islamabad, told IRIN.

Quake areas affected

Some of the worst-hit areas include those affected by the October 2005 earthquake which struck large parts of NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, killing more than 75,000 people and rendering millions homeless.

In NWFP's Battagram and Allai valleys, both surrounded by high mountains, work to build shelters for people made homeless by the quake has ground to a virtual halt.

"Work has to be curtailed because of the snowfall," said Azhar Khan, a resident of Allai now based in Abbottabad.

"Many quake-hit families still lack shelter," Imran Khan, provincial coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in the NWFP, said, speaking from Peshawar. He blamed "bureaucratic delays" for this.

"In this weather the situation of those living in inadequate, temporary housing, sometimes made mainly of tin sheets and wood planks, is miserable," he said.

Fifty thousand or so people in the picturesque Kaghan Valley, which lies close to Battagram, have been cut off from the rest of the country by heavy snow, now lying between one and two metres deep.

Reports of houses collapsing have also come in, with the deaths of a mother and daughter reported in the town of Oghi, in Mansehra District.

Shortage of wheat flour

The extreme north of the country has been worst affected, including the mountain valleys of Chitral and Shangla.

With road and air links suspended, Chitral has been isolated for five days now and there are reports of acute wheat flour shortages in the area. Whereas in most years people stock staples ahead of the harsh winter, this has been impossible this year due to an acute flour shortage in the NWFP.

"I am told my elderly father is sick, but I cannot reach Chitral to bring him down to Peshawar, as vans, buses and trucks have been stranded due to landslides on the Karakorum highway," Ayaz Jan, 25, said from Peshawar, noting food shortages had affected many places in the remote area.

Two days ago, seven members of the Chitral Scouts paramilitary force were killed in an avalanche at the Lowari Top pass in Chitral, where work is under way to build a tunnel.

The tunnel would provide all-weather road access to Chitral, and reduce by half the 14-hour driving time from Peshawar.

Meanwhile, many people remain cut off due to snow and the storms that again lashed the area on 10 January, with further landslides expected as snow collects along mountain roads.

kh/ds/cb

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

IRIN news