The international community needs to spend "several billions of dollars in immediate cash" to stave off a humanitarian crisis in Pakistan-ruled Kashmir, according to the chairman of an international donor conference to be held this week.
Kemal Dervis, the head of the UN Development Programme, acknowledged that the relief effort had struggled to raise the required $550m (£314m) from its instant appeal and that the $130m pledged so far was "clearly insufficient".
The earthquake on October 8 killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and about 1,500 in India-controlled Kashmir. The limited aid response has stood in sharp contrast to the assistance given or offered the victims of last year's Asian tsunami, which raised $11bn. The death toll of the tsunami topped 230,000. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has suggested that the international community has not been generous because foreign tourists did not die in the quake.
Mr Dervis, a former Turkish finance minister, told the Guardian that the Himalayan earthquake's impact could be compared to the tsunami, though the initial effect of the ocean surge "was much more devastating". He said: "The onset of winter in Kashmir and inaccessibility of the terrain makes this earthquake much more difficult to deal with in its second stage."
Temperatures in the earthquake zone are soon expected to drop sharply. More than 200,000 people live above the Himalayan ice line, and many of the homeless are in the hills, commonly covered by a foot of snow in the winter.
Mr Dervis pointed to "compassion fatigue" as one reason for the apparent disparity in generosity. "We have seen Katrina, the Guatemala mudslides and the tsunami. We know aid budgets are stretched. But we have to re-energise the donor community."
Oil-rich Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have made separate pledges of money for longer term reconstruction, in sums totalling more than $330m. Turkey has promised $150m.
Mr Dervis said: "There are loans from World Bank and Asian Development Bank, but none of these are immediately available." He added that he would try to coax more money from the 70 countries due to attend the international meeting in Islamabad this week but also suggested there could be a more local response to funding. "Schoolchildren in Turkey collected $10m just from the surrounding areas in a few days after the quake."
Although Pakistan has registered high rates of growth in the past year, its economy has been dealt a blow by the quake. There have been calls for debt relief, as 20% of the country's spending goes to paying off loans. However Mr Dervis cautioned against such a move, saying that wiping out debt did not free up cash immediately. "Debt relief saves on interest payments over many years. Pakistan needs cash now."
More hopeful was the apparent shift away from costly defence spending, with President Musharraf saying he would defer purchasing from Washington 50 F16 fighter jets costing a total of $2bn. The bill for quake reconstruction is put at $5bn.
Mr Dervis also hoped for a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan after the quake. The affected region lies almost entirely within the region of Kashmir, split between India and Pakistan.
