Tents for Pakistan: Made in America?

Will Pakistan, the world’s number one manufacturer of refugee tents, have to start importing them? Devastated by a violent monsoon for the past month, the country faces an urgent need for temporary shelters; according to the United Nations, 1.2 million homes have been damaged. However, because of the inaccessibility of affected areas, general lack of organization and aid that is slow in arriving, fewer than 120,000 tents have been distributed so far. According to government estimates, Pakistan needs over 500,000 tents.

Ironically, Pakistan is the main manufacturer and supplier of emergency tents for United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations. “Most of the shelters we’ve already distributed were produced locally, but the supply doesn’t meet our needs,” explained a spokesperson from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).*

Reassured by the millions of dollars in aid promised by the international community, the Pakistani government has asked manufacturers to increase production to 10,000 units per day. It is a windfall for the industry. Manufacturers like Al Farooq, Nizam and Shahid can produce up to 1,000 tents daily.

Extreme Standards

However, this market has whetted appetites far beyond Karachi. Five textile trade organizations in the United States have written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to ask them to support American jobs by supplying Pakistan with tents…made in the United States. “Aiding Pakistan, Haiti and other countries in distress are worthy American humanitarian responses, particularly if the U.S. adopts the strategy of ‘U.S. Aid – U.S. Made,’” the manufacturers wrote.

Still, tents must conform to the extreme standards of the humanitarian community. Making any old tent is out of the question. In a note from August 7, the UN office in charge of shelters in Pakistan stressed that “Even good quality tents have a lifetime [of] less than a year in hot and humid climates.”

Thus, of the 400,000 tents distributed after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, more than 80 percent were unsuitable for the local climate. Most notably, they proved insufficiently watertight during heavy rains.

We might even wonder whether it is optimal to resort to tent cities: “significant funds are used with limited long term advantage to the occupants,” UN experts note. They emphasize, “Tents have a larger footprint than self built shelters.” This is true especially of tents imported from the other side of the world.

* Translator’s note: English quote could not be verified.