Pakistan Floods – Pakistan Needs a Fresh Disaster Mitigation Strategy

16 NOVEMBER, 2015 BY SCIDEV.NET IN ASIA

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The rural economy takes a huge hit from frequent floods that can be better managed, says Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar, writing for SciDev.Net.

The history of disasters in South Asia reveals what is at stake in the face of climate change. Analyses of data for natural disasters — from the international disaster database EM-DAT, and covering hazards including droughts, epidemics, floods and landslides — shows that India is the country that has been most affected by these events since 1900, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.[1]

Every year, agricultural losses related to disaster cost Pakistan an average of US$15-20 million. This is due to poor governance, rural communities residing inside flood-prone areas, a lack of adaptive agricultural research and a resistance to changing what has become a ‘flood business’ — the government compensating those affected by floods and then resettling them back to the same flood-prone areas. This spells a need to rethink the country’s national framework for disaster management to protect its agricultural economy.

Rising Disaster Risk

According to EM-DAT data, the risk of natural disasters in Pakistan has increased over the past 100 years: four per cent (four events) of the global total of natural disasters occurred in the country during 1900-1947, rising to 64 per cent (79 events) during 1948-1990 and 32 per cent (40 events), in just the past 15 years, from 1991-2015.

Development policy has also changed, alongside these trends, over the past few decades. There is no doubt that Pakistan has shifted towards industries based on agricultural raw materials such as cotton ginning (separating fibres from seeds) or rice exports — much less agricultural growth is occurring among farming communities. The agro-industrial sector contributes around 21-25 per cent to national GDP (gross domestic product).

Wheat, cotton, sugar cane and rice are the crops of major economic importance for the country. Wheat is mainly grown in the Rabi growing season (October-May), which generally avoids the floods caused by monsoon rains that typically fall from June until September. It follows that extreme monsoon events and floods harm the national economy directly — through losses to life and of crops, livestock and houses — and indirectly, through the huge investments the government then needs to make to rehabilitate affected areas.

Cotton, sugar cane, rice and other high-value crops are mainly grown in Kharif season (July-September), when they are most at risk from the monsoon floods. Cotton contributes an average of around 1.5 per cent to GDP, with rice providing 0.7 per cent, sugar cane 0.6 per cent and maize 0.4 per cent.

“Although geospatial technology can help to map and monitor areas at risk of disaster, this is not enough. The adoption of policies to reduce the impacts of flooding needs legislation.” –Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar

The numbers on losses speak for themselves. During the flooding that took place in each of the past six years (2010-2015), Pakistan lost cumulatively more than an estimated 1,359,000 hectares of cotton, 372,000 hectares of sugar cane and around 1,391,000 hectares of rice. [2-4, unpublished data 2013-15]

No doubt, the 2010 floods were the worst in terms of geographical extent and damage to crops. But they also highlighted the lack of a preparedness infrastructure and mechanisms in Pakistan.

Life on the Edge

Systems that rely on satellite technology, such as remote sensing and geographic information systems, have helped improve the country’s management of disasters, through near-real-time situation analysis, coverage of a wider area than could be monitored physically on the ground, and through spatial analysis. Crucially, this technology has also enabled us to understand how many of the country’s rural population live inside or near flood-prone areas and rely on smallholdings for their livelihood.

In the province of Punjab, 531,000 hectares (4.4 per cent) of agriculture is practised inside the floodplain; in Sindh province, the figure is 489,000 hectares (7.4 per cent).

During the monsoon season, rising rivers can easily flood crops up to five to ten kilometres around the river channel. Geospatial analyses have identified several districts in Punjab and Sindh with significant areas of crops growing inside floodplains during the July-September flood season.

But although geospatial technology can help to map and monitor areas at risk of disaster, this is not enough. The adoption of policies to reduce the impacts of flooding needs legislation — to permanently relocate families to safer zones, adopt flood-resilient cropping practices as a preventive measure, and promote research into cropping systems adapted to floods. In essence, it needs a revised disaster-management framework.

Such a framework would also reinforce the role of technology, by promoting tools that are more time-effective and reliable. For example, conventional approaches to data collection in Pakistan rely on centuries-old administrative systems; they need to be revamped with state-of-the-art geospatial technologies that can visualise and measure every inch of land surface in the country.

Capacity building is important too: those running management systems lack proper technical skills, adding further to improper planning and the tendency towards unscientific approaches to tackling natural disasters.

Pakistan needs a framework that promotes proper assessments of climate change, develops mitigation strategies, maps risk-prone areas by classifying multiple disasters and supports research for agricultural adaptations that can add resilience to cropping systems. The country’s bureaucratic approach to disaster management needs to turn into a technocratic one.

File photo: Floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010. Photo: Oxfam International

About the Author

Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar is a scientist at Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, Islamabad. The views expressed in this article are his and do not reflect the official view of his organisation.

References

[1] Guha-Sapir D, Below R and Hoyois Ph. EM-DAT: The CRED/OFDA International Disaster Database (, a
[2] Pakistan: floods/rains 2010 — Rapid crop damage assessment, series no. 1, series no. 2. (Suparco and FAO, 2010)
[3] Pakistan: floods/rains 2011 — Rapid crop damage assessment, series no. 3 (Suparco and FAO, 2011)
[4] Pakistan: floods/rains 2012 — Rapid crop damage assessment, series no. 4 (Suparco and FAO, 2012)

This article was originally published on SciDev.Net. Read the original article.

Flood Disaster 2015 in Pakistan

BY ADMINISTRATOR JULY 24, 2015

Years of floods have taught us nothing. A human catastrophe is already underway in the Chitral valley as floods have swept away 40 link bridges and over 100 houses in the scenic valley. As torrential rain continued for a seventh day, more villages were hit by flash floods in the area. The government has declared the area to be calamity hit, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finally being able to reach the area, and announcing Rs1 billion in aid. Luckily, locals have migrated to safe places mitigating human casualties, but the failure of government departments to give an accurate estimate of the flood damage should be an indicator of the systemic failure of the state to plan for increased floods. The complete annihilation of roads and suspension bridges means that locals are unable to leave the area, with aid being delivered via army helicopters. While the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister’s office has claimed that schools are being converted into shelters, the deputy commissioner’s office seems to respond to the assertions with ignorance. There is no better proof of a complete communication breakdown in the response to the floods.

With both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif away in Saudi Arabia when the flooding season began, it is clear that the priorities of the elected representatives of the country lie elsewhere. The directives to the National Disaster Management Authority to speed up relief and rescue efforts mean absolutely nothing when there has been no upgrading of disaster management and weather prediction systems. The bulk of the relief effort in Chitral has remained in the hands of the army, the civilian government for now sticking to promises of compensation. Punjab is set to experience high floods after a Met office warning that River Indus is in high flood at Taunsa Barrage and set to rise. There is still time for emergency measures to mitigate the flooding and pre-warn affected populations where the breaches in the dykes are likely to be made. In Layyah alone 223,000 people have been affected by the floods as dykes have washed away in Dera Ghazi Khan. A total of 244 villages in Punjab are said to have been affected. In terms of showing a complete absence of planning, the Punjab chief minister’s home city, Lahore, offers a glaring example – having been converted into a swamp by lunch time. That the drainage and sewerage system in the capital of Punjab choked after a few hours of rain shows that the priorities of the government are in delivering glossy infrastructure without any of the basic requirements of planning being met. With the level of water in the Hub Dam up by three feet and 15 people having drowned in the region, the next likely target of the floods is Sindh. The infrastructure in Karachi is so poor that 117 feeders tripped on Wednesday night after the first monsoon rain. Each year Pakistan faces floods. Each year they catch the administration by surprise. The governments are clearly not interested in safeguarding people from floods. And now the demand for security from floods may need to emerge more strongly from the people. With more thunderstorms on the way in Sindh, Bilawal Bhutto’s directives to the Sindh government to prepare for flooding will hardly mitigate the effects of decades of neglecting the country’s water infrastructure.

World pledges 700 million dollars for Pakistan floods: US

World pledges 700 million dollars for Pakistan floods: US

(AFP) – 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The United States and other countries worldwide have now pledged a total of more than 700 million dollars towards flood relief in Pakistan, a senior US official said Monday.

The United Nations General Assembly meeting last Thursday was "a real galvanizing moment in terms of contributions from other countries," said Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"By our count, we?ve seen over 700 million dollars pledged, including our own 150 million dollar commitment, from over 30 countries," Feldman told reporters without giving a country-by-country breakdown.

He also said there are an "additional 300 million dollars in as yet undefined commitments" from a variety of countries.

He said there would be more multi-lateral meetings to coordinate the international aid response in the coming weeks, including a possible gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in late September.

The Financial Tracking Service (FTS), a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late Friday that 490.7 million dollars has come in for Pakistan's floods, with another 325 million dollars promised.

Just over half came via the UN's emergency appeal fund while the rest came via bilateral aid, chiefly from Saudi Arabia, charities or private organizations and companies.

The United Nations launched a 460-million-dollar appeal for donations on August 11, saying this was the amount it estimated was needed by Pakistan to recover from the disaster.

Sportpersons to go on streets to raise funds for flood victims

Karachi, Aug 24 (PTI) Top cricketers and hockey Olympians of Pakistan will go out on the streets of major cities to raise funds for the millions of flood affected people of the country. Former Test captain Moin Khan told a press conference yesterday that many former and present players have given their consent for the fund collection and raising drive that would start next week. "All the players want to play their role in collecting funds for the flood victims and we will go out on the streets and implore with the people to donate funds and anything else they can to make life easier for the millions affected in the devastation," Moin said. Many former and present cricketers and hockey stars of Pakistan have been working under the umbrella of the Islamic Relief Fund, which has offices in many parts of the world to raise funds for noble causes. Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Latif and Moin have also attended the Islamic Relief Fund charity events in Dubai, the UK and US in recent past to gather funds for different causes. "When the earthquake struck our country five years back we launched a similar fund raising drive by going on to the streets and the response was overwhelming for us," Moin said. Former Test player Jalaluddin said the sporting fraternity wanted to play its part in raising funds for the flood victims as they commanded lot of respect, love and credibility among the Pakistani people. Former player and a leading official of the Islamic Relief Fund, Haris Khan said that sportspersons would go on the streets in walkathons and set up camps to collect funds and goods. "We will then ourselves travel to the flood affected areas and distribute these among the deserving victims of the devastating floods," he said. The Pakistan Cricket Board has already announced its intentions to organise some charity matches to raise funds for the flood victims. The national team players have also announced that they would give part of their match fees for the flood victims. PTI Cor SSC

China "lost no time" in delivering aid to flood-hit Pakistan

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:32 August 24 2010]
• Comments

China "lost no time" in delivering badly needed relief items to flood-hit Pakistan, Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khan said Monday.

"China was one the first countries to respond to the relief needs of Pakistan when it was hit by the worst floods in 81 years. China moved with speed," said Khan in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

China increased its aid from 1.5 million US dollars to 10 million US dollars, including tents, sludge cleaning and water purifying equipment, generators, blankets, food, bottled water, and medicines to the neighboring south Asian state.

The Pakistani embassy to China has received messages of solidarity and sympathy from Chinese from all walks of life -- students, doctors, engineers, corporate executives, media persons, academics, artists, and farmers, Khan said.

One company in Chengdu donated 1,000 tons of rice. A dean of the prestigious Tsinghua University donated a month's salary for relief. Professionals of a company who had worked in Pakistan collected funds for the victims.

The embassy had opened an account with the Bank of China for the "Pakistan Prime Minister's Relief Fund" and the smallest donation was 10 yuan, while the largest was 800,000 yuan (117,666 US dollars).

"This, I would say, is the China spirit - the spirit of Pakistan-China friendship," said Khan.

"It is not fair for any country or any person to make oblique references to China's relief assistance to Pakistan or to urge China to do more," he said.

"China and Pakistan have the strongest of relations and we can get in touch with each other in an instant. No intercession is needed," he said.

"Besides, it is like pushing at an open door." Khan said Pakistan was briefing the Chinese government on the floods situation at all levels, and "China keeps responding."

He said his country had requested provision of equipment (prefabricated) bridges and China was preparing a fresh consignment for northern part of Pakistan.

China had helped the Pakistanis navigate some of the most daunting strategic challenges, he said, naming the 2005 earthquake.

The ambassador labelled post-floods phase in Pakistan "most important for China's involvement," as floods had swept away roads, bridges, crops, houses, livestock, and communication systems.

"China knows Pakistan's economic, agricultural and infrastructure landscape. We would need China's industrial, agricultural and corporate expertise in the next phases of early recovery and rehabilitation, and especially during reconstruction," said the ambassador.

Pakistan needed China's agricultural support to recover and re-till land. It needed most Chinese corporations in the reconstruction of roads, bridges and power plants, he said.

Pakistan floods: 'Desperate for doctors'‎

Omar Ahsan, an interior designer living in Karachi, has visited 17 remote mountain villages in the Shangla district, NWFP.

"I have a comfortable life in Karachi and when this calamity hit, me and some of my friends felt we had to help some of the affected people. First we took food relief to Peshawar and some other urban areas of the NWFP.

Then I got a phone call from a driver, who used to work for me. He said he's been seeing bodies in the river where he lives, about 150km from Islamabad. He said there were many, many bodies, hundreds of them, and that they all came from Shangla district.

At that moment I decided I should go to that place. I came over here alone. I managed to get one truck of relief. It's a big district, hundreds of kilometres. The whole network had collapsed, the telecommunication network has come down.

When I reached the end of the roads, I had to start walking.

I spent the last four days travelling on the outskirts of Shangla district, walking in a mountainous terrain. I covered about 55km and visited 17 villages.

People there are hungry and thirsty. There's no electricity, no water, no gas, no food supplies. The nearest place where food is being distributed is Karora and the queues are 3-4km long.

Thousands of people come down from the mountains and stand in the sun for a whole day in order to get a bag of flour. The queues are long, these are simple people, their patience is compromised, queues are broken and some go away with bruises and injuries.

In each village I went I was supported by the elders and I was joined by volunteers. Elders would tell me how many houses were destroyed, I would gather the data and issue them with a token to come to Karora where we had our own food supplies waiting for them.

Yesterday we set up a camp in Karora. From early morning till late afternoon we distributed food to 300 families, which is probably more than 3,000 people. It was a tough day.

But work is far from over. People desperately need more food and most importantly they need lady doctors. There are hundreds of thousands of women and children without a doctor. Kids were crying of pain and mothers were begging me to bring them female doctors.

If someone is ill, they put him on a stretcher which four men carry down the mountain until they reach the nearest hospital. That could take a couple of days of walking. And there are hundreds of thousands of people stuck there without any help."

Nasrullah Jamali, from a village in Baluchistan

Nasrullah Jamali fled to Karachi after his village in Baluchistan was hit by the floods a week ago. He describes the devastation for him and his villagers.

"Our homes are gone, everything is gone. The water level is now 6 to 8ft. People can't live there. There's nothing left.

We knew the water was coming, we knew it was expected, we were seeing that it was coming.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There's nothing we can do. We are still in the state of shock”

End Quote

Me and my family left and we are now staying in the house of my uncle in Karachi. But many people couldn't afford to leave.

I speak to my villagers all the time.

They are now staying in shelters made by themselves using plastic sheets. They don't have water and food. Yesterday there was one helicopter to get food to them, but it's not enough.

There's a nearby place - about 3km away from my village - I am told there are six people trapped there, surrounded by water.

I try to organise aid for them. I am contacting the army to send relief helicopters to them.

There are sick people and they don't have any medicine. I can't describe it in words - it's a very serious situation.

I don't know when we'll be able to return to our home. It will probably take six months. There's nothing we can do. We are still in the state of shock."

Ghulam Nabi Magsi, who visited flood-hit Sindh Province

Ghulam Nabi Magsi was visiting relatives in the province of Sindh in the middle of August, when the floods swept through the village. Now back in Lahore, he describes that moment - and the current situation in the village.

"I was on holiday visiting my relatives in their small village in Ghotki district, Singh province, when the floods came. It was a horrible situation. The floodwaters were everywhere.

Our area was the first to be affected after the flood in Punjab. We thought it was not going to be that big, but it turned out to be a mega flood. The houses were completely flooded.

People fled leaving everything behind. Me and my immediate family returned to Lahore and other relatives went to Karachi.

Sindh is now being described as the worst-hit province

The waters have moved south and a few of my relatives, all men, have returned to the village. They say the water level is down, but there are many problems.

The houses are damaged by the water, but they'll repair them. The problem they now face is lack of water. The water is not suitable for drinking and there's the danger of water-borne diseases.

They get help from the government and from people living in nearby areas that haven't been affected.

They expect their wives and children to join them by the end of the month."

Pakistan Floods 'Outrunning Relief Efforts'

Flood waters are set to rise further in Pakistan as officials negotiate with the International Monetary Fund on how to shore-up the battered economy to maintain stability.

Emergency teams are working to shore up a system of levees protecting two southern cities as the crisis continues to grow.

The worst floods in decades, which began nearly a month ago with hammering rains in the country's northwest, have affected more than 17 million people, a UN official said.

Now, the waters are spreading through the rice-growing belt in southern Sindh province district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments one by one.

"The floods are outrunning our relief efforts. We move faster and faster, but the finish line keeps moving further ahead," United Nations spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said.

Flooding In Sindh Province

View Pakistan Floods in a larger map

In Shadad Kot, in Sindh province, authorities are increasingly worried that even the 10 miles of new levees soldiers have built may not hold back the waters from the city as well as Qambar city further south.

Workers have piled stones and sandbags to plug leaks in the levees, trying to keep on top of any damage to the defences.

Around 90% of Shadad Kot's 350,000 residents have already fled the city and many have also left Qambar and other nearby towns.

On the eastern side of the city, levees were under pressure from nine-foot high floodwaters, said Yaseen Shar, a top administrative official.

Flood survivors flee Shadad Kot as emergency workers battle to reinforce the levees

Meanwhile, Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari has defended the government's much-criticised response to the country's record-breaking flood crisis.

Authorities have been accused of moving too slowly, and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have rapidly provided relief to Pakistanis already frustrated with their leaders' track record on security, poverty and chronic power shortages.

Mr Zardari said anger at the government in the coming months is inevitable given the scale of the disaster, comparing it to the anti-government sentiment generated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

"There will be discontent, there is no way any nation, even a superpower.... can bring the same level of satisfaction that will be close to the expectations of the people," he said.

"Surely we will try and meet them as much as we can."

But he insisted the government "had functioned to its fullest capacity".

The IMF has said it will review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects due to the magnitude of the disaster.

Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, has been hit hard. The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres of land, food minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said.

The IMF help may come in the form of lowering some of the fiscal targets of the loan program or allowing the government to abandon it and take IMF emergency funding for countries hit by natural disasters.

Flood-hit Pakistan seeks IMF's help

As Pakistanis brace for more flooding in the south of their country, officials are holding talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the country's battered economy and how to maintain stability.

The floods have so far killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million others, with survivors facing the threat of disease.

It is estimated the country's economic losses could spiral to more than $40 billion and there are renewed concerns that Islamic militants may exploit the chaos.

Aid workers now say the scale of Pakistan's humanitarian disaster is gargantuan and growing.

Millions are living in temporary camps in the flood-hit areas.

But the cramped and unhygienic conditions, combined with food shortages and intense heat, raise the spectre of potentially fatal disease outbreaks, such as cholera.

The United Nations says there are already more than 120,000 case of suspected dengue and malaria, while skin infections and diarrhoea have affected hundreds of thousands more.

Relief workers and the military are trying to get aid to the desperate but there is too little to hand out and too many in need.

Abdul Hamid Bulloh, who is organising one of the relief camps, says a heavy security presence is essential.

"People rush over, people don't listen. There is a problem if it is at a road or a highway, there is a problem," he said.

"People don't see there is a distribution of food, they come and they drive."

But Assistant Inspector-General, Javed Odho, says he understands why.

"The loss that people have gone through in terms of the human loss as well as, especially the loss of their crops, food and their households," he said.

"I don't blame them, they just don't want to take any chances because they are not sure what they will be feeding their children the next day, tomorrow."

The UN says more than 6 million people still need basic shelter and the humanitarian situation is critical.

Flood leaves 10 dead, 12 injured in NW Pakistan

Ten people were killed and 12 others were injured in flood in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province ''NWFP'', according to local TV Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Geo TV channel quoted Muhammad Anis, District Coordination Officer of Peshawar, capital city of NWFP as saying that the flood had damaged 8,000 houses and affected 25,000 families in Peshawar.

Anis said the total loss would amount to 4 billion rupees (around 55.3 million U.S. dollars).

Thousands left homeless by floods in Pakistan

Muslim Aid is assessing the damage caused by the recent flash floods in Pakistan that have left approximately 32 people dead and destroyed over 1,000 homes, leaving 110 villages under water. The floods, triggered by four days of torrential rain have caused massive damage to homes, buildings and bridges in the suburbs of Peshawar and the adjoining Khyber Agency. South-westerly winds bring heavy rains throughout South Asia in the June to September monsoon season.

The floods have caused damage to infrastructure causing buildings to collapse and communications systems have gone down. Many people have taken refuge out in the open or on roof tops, trees and electricity poles. Food shortages and water contamination are of huge concern. Hand pumps are not operational due to mud and polluted water. The floods destroyed the majority of maize, tomato and sugarcane crops and have killed hundreds of livestock.

Muslim Aid Pakistan visited the flood affected areas and reported that mud houses have been washed away and people have been left with no shelter. Some of the dead were killed when their roofs collapsed. Many women and children were swept away with the floods as they could not reach higher rooftops to take refuge. Cases of diarrhea, throat infection, Scabies, viral infections and cholera have been reported along with some cases of snake bites.

Muslim Aid on the ground has begun distributing blankets, footwear and tents in Miskeenabad, Patvar and Teriya Pan. We have also been focusing on long term solutions to provide clean drinking water through water trekker purifciation systems and aqua tabs.

NWFP Information Minister has stated that the floods in Peshawar are ebbing away, however weather experts have forecast more rain in the region over the next 24 hours.

Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund inaugurated

PESHAWAR, Aug 13 (APP): The NWFP Government has opened a fund “Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund NWFP 2008 and both the domestic and international donors would donate in the fund.

The contributions from abroad will be received at all branches of nationalized commercial banks where such branches exist. In other foreign countries contributions will be received at Pakistan Missions and remitted to the State Bank of Pakistan.

It is worth mentioning that the recent flood and heavy rains had played havoc with most of the villages in the suburbs of Peshawar and other areas of NWFP. The floods caused huge damages to the lives and property of the people of the province.

The provincial government has appealed the donors, philanthropists and NGOs to generously deposit their donations in the said fund and wholeheartedly help the flood affectees in this hour of trial.

Pakistan: Floods Information Bulletin No. 03

Glide No. FF-2008-000123-PAK

This bulletin is being issued for information only.

One week after monsoon rains throughout Pakistan created floods situation in different parts of the country, flood water in most of the affected communities has receded. The Pakistan meteorological department has predicted scattered thunderstorms and rain in upper Punjab, including Islamabad, upper North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kashmir, and at isolated places in southern Punjab and southeast Sindh during the next 24 hours.

Relief operations and provision of basic health services by the government and national and international NGOs in the affected areas are currently underway. Top priority at present is the provision of safe drinking water and regular monitoring of water quality, as well as strengthening of Disease Early Warning System in flood affected areas in Peshawar district (NWFP) and implementation of the same in Rajanpur district (Punjab province) to prevent potential outbreak of communicable diseases. The Pakistan Red Crescent Society's (PRCS') national and provincial disaster response teams have completed their assessment and have distributed food and non-food items to affected communities. The PRCS/International Federation health teams have also provided basic health care and treatment to affected people. The PRCS' 2008 floods contingency plan, which was activated, and the formation of an Emergency Operations Committee by the national society, which met regularly following the floods, enabled the joint team of the PRCS, International Federation and partner national societies working in the country to meet the immediate needs of the affected population.

The Pakistan Red Crescent Society, with the support of the International Federation, determined that external assistance was not required, and therefore did not seek funding or other assistance from donors for its flood relief operation.

The Situation

Floods have subsided in the most affected areas of Pakistan. The Pakistan meteorological department has predicted scattered thunderstorms and rainfall in upper Punjab, including Islamabad, upper North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Kashmir, and at isolated places of southern Punjab and southeast Sindh during the next 24 hours. Several families who were rendered homeless by the floods continue to stay on roads and other safer places. Safe water supply remains a problem. Relief operations by the government and NGOs are currently underway, providing families with food and non-food relief items, clean and safe drinking water as well as basic health services.

Punjab

The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS)/International Federation national disaster response team, which visited affected areas has reported that the floodwater has started receding in the three worst hit union councils in Rajanpur district (Haji Pur, Bakar Pur and Fateh Pur), as well as in the Eozman area hit by hill torrents and in 2 DG Khan district. The PRCS/International Federation team struggled though floodwater, mud and piles of debris to reach affected communities and distributed 200 packs of non-food items/family kits and 1,000 bags of flour (20 kilograms of flour per bag) to affected families in the areas visited. The non-food items consisted of tents, tarpaulin sheets, stoves, hurricane lamps and jerry cans. According to the team, some of the affected families have gone back to their damaged houses while the rest, whose houses were washed away, have opted to stay on roads or on the banks of irrigation channels.

PAKISTAN: Many cyclone victims still struggling seven months on

PAKISTAN: Many cyclone victims still struggling seven months on

Source: IRIN
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
KARACHI, 25 January 2008 (IRIN) - Many of the 350,000 people displaced by Cyclone Yemyin which struck the southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh last summer have yet to fully recover from the storm that wreaked havoc on their lives.
Pakistan officially stated that nearly 300 people were killed in the disaster, while over 2.5 million people were affected.
The Pakistani government, assisted by international agencies, staged intensive relief operations as the full scale of the calamity became obvious, with temporary shelters set up for affected people and the worst-hit victims moved to camps.
But seven months on, the plight of cyclone victims appears to have been forgotten: Many international relief agencies have since withdrawn, while aid provided in the immediate aftermath of the disaster has for the most part dried up.
In short, people have been left in many cases to re-build their own lives, area residents now complain.
Balochistan
"No one has bothered about us. Those who could manage it have repaired their homes or put up new structures; others struggle on in temporary shelters," Naveed Baloch, 27, told IRIN from the town of Awaran, about 100km inland from the Balochistan coast.
The area was one of the most severely affected by the torrential rains that followed the cyclone. Towns and villages further upstream were hit by hill torrents triggered by heavy rains.
Such dissatisfaction was shared by Fareed Ahmed, provincial coordinator in Balochistan for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
"Very little help has reached the cyclone victims and about 100,000 are still without adequate housing. Those who lack resources to construct homes are literally living in shacks made of canvas and wood, which offer no protection at all," he told IRIN.
However, the district mayor of Awaran, Khair Jan Baloch, disputed this assertion: "The cyclone victims were provided help, including food and medical aid, and they have now largely recovered."
Some affected communities air their dissatisfaction with post-cyclone relief measures in other parts of the province. One example is Jhal Magsi District, about 170km southwest of Balochistan's provincial capital, Quetta, where almost the entire population of 140,000 were forced to temporarily leave their homes after the cyclone.
There was also large-scale loss of the livestock on which many area residents depend.
"We were shifted to camps, where disease spread, and since then, though some medical and financial aid was provided, we have been forgotten," Alidar Magsi, 50, said.
"Adding to the public's discontent was the wide scale contamination of many of Balochistan's few safe water sources as a result of the flooding."Adding to the public's discontent is contamination of the few safe water sources in Balochistan as a result of the flooding, coupled with the lack of sanitation or sewage facilities; an obvious factor in increasing the many health hazards in a region where only a minority of Balochistan's 10 million inhabitants have access to health care.
Longstanding grievances
Compounding these grievances further is the longstanding perception in Balochistan of neglect by the Islamabad government.
The province is the least developed of Pakistan's four federal units, has been affected by periodic nationalist uprisings, and harbours a brooding resentment against what is viewed as deliberate discrimination.
According to education experts, Balochistan's current literacy rate stands at just 34 percent, compared to Pakistan's national average of 52 percent.
"These feelings exist across Balochistan, and whether or not the complaints are genuine, the fact is that attitudes are shaped by them," Iqbal Haider, an experienced politician and secretary-general of the HRCP, said.
Sindh Province
For the time being, recovery, on the whole, seems to have been somewhat better in the province of Sindh, lying east of Balochistan.
Though acres of agricultural land in areas bordering Balochistan came under flood waters, farmers like Akhtar Chandio, from a village in Dadu District, said: "We have now been able to reach a situation of some normalcy."
But as almost inevitably happens when natural disaster strikes, it is the already unprotected and weak that suffer most.
According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 17,000 women were left vulnerable to neglect, abuse and violence, in the wake of the cyclone.
Many lost their belongings, and the fact that women in rural Pakistan frequently lack national ID cards meant they were unable to apply for compensation.
"Child-and-women-friendly spaces" have been set up in 54 locations in Balochistan and Sindh for such victims by non-governmental organisations working with UNICEF, and run by volunteers to offer support, recreational activity and training in crafts or other skills.
"We try to encourage local communities to see these places as belonging to them," Kamleshwar Lohana of the Indus Resource Centre, one of the groups working with UNICEF, said.
Meanwhile, the sea along Pakistan's coast is now calm. Fishing boats have returned in strength and there is little evidence of the 130 kmph winds that lashed the area seven months ago.
For those directly affected by the cyclone - one of the worst in years - the memories linger on, as do the adverse effects the storm left behind on their lives and welfare.

Flood victims in South Asia face economic devastation and threat of waterborne diseases

Weeks of continuous monsoon rains and severe flooding have wreaked havoc across South Asia, including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. According to the UN OCHA Regional Office for Asia Pacific, over 40 million people have been affected. Flood waters have submerged entire villages, devastated over a million acres of agricultural crops, and left people stranded on river embankments and rooftops. There is a severe shortage of food, drinking water, and shelter, and outbreaks of waterborne diseases pose a significant public health threat. Concern Worldwide provided immediate disaster relief in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and is currently scaling up its response in all three countries. Concern has launched an emergency appeal to meet the urgent and ongoing survival needs of flood victims in the affected areas.
COUNTRIES AFFECTED
According to an August 15th update from the UN OCHA Regional Office for Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan are the countries most severely affected by the flooding. Although water levels are receding, monsoon season is not over, and the standing water in and around villages are breeding grounds for waterborne diseases and pose serious public health threats. Recent heavy rains in China, North Korea, and southern provinces of Pakistan have resulted in massive damage to crops, homes, and livelihoods. (See UN OCHA map for more details on areas affected by floods.)
In a statement regarding the scale of the damage, Mr. John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said, "For most families affected by these floods, the recovery of their livelihoods will be arduous and protracted. Six weeks with nothing but uncertainty can feel like forever."
CURRENT STATUS
In Bangladesh, the floods have caused enormous economic and physical damage. Over 9.5 million people have been severely affected, losing their homes and their primary means of generating income. To date, 481 people have died, and the government has reported over 58,440 people admitted to hospitals with diarrhoea. The International Center for Diarrhoeaal Disease Research (ICDDRB) reports that the rate of admission of diarrhoea patients at the center is between 900 and 1000 every 24 hours. Approximately 1.5 million acres of crops have been damaged, destroying the primary source of income for millions of people. Over 89,000 homes have been totally destroyed, and 650,000 have been partially destroyed.
In all 38 flood-affected districts of Bangladesh, there are severe outbreaks of waterborne disease, including serious diarrhoeaal diseases. Flood waters continue to inundate much of the eastern part of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and many people have taken shelter in government offices and schools.
In India, continuous heavy rains have affected more than 11 million people. Flood waters have submerged or marooned several hundred villages, displacing several hundred people. More than 60,000 houses have collapsed, and many houses have been submerged under eight to ten feet of water. In villages cut off by the flooding, there is a shortage of food and drinking water, and the rains have left agricultural laborers without work for weeks. Farmers face extensive damage to and loss of crops.
Cyclone Yemyin hit Balochistan Province in Pakistan on Tuesday, June 26, 2007, bringing heavy rain, flooding and winds of up to 80 miles per hour. An estimated 2.5 million people have been affected by the floods in late June and early July, and 202 lives have been lost. An estimated 360,000 people have been left homeless.
A total of 15 out of 29 districts across the province have been affected from coastal areas to more inland districts of Balochistan. Bridges and communications infrastructures have been badly damaged and many areas remain inaccessible by road.
In North Korea, heavy rain has resulted in rivers bursting their banks, flooding huge areas of farmland and destroying thousands of homes. Access is still impossible to many of the affected, but current reports suggest that hundreds of people have been killed or are missing and that more than 30,000 houses have been destroyed. In addition, at least 800 public buildings, more than 540 bridges and extended sections of railway are reported to have been destroyed by the rain. The impact on agricultural production is likely to be considerable. Even in a good year, North Korean needs food assistance, and any additional loss of production could have serious medium-term consequences.
"The current torrential rains are causing heavier damage to farm crops than the previous ones in our country," said Ri Jae-hyon, Department Director of the DPRK Ministry of Agriculture, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
CONCERN WORLDWIDE'S RESPONSE
Bangladesh
Concern has completed its relief response for 11,000 families in Sirajganj, Mainkganj and Faridpur districts. Concern was the first INGO to respond in Faridpur, the Law advisor Barrisster Mainul Hosein commended Concern's and its partner agencies quick response to help the affected people.
A 15 day food ration will be distributed to 4,000 families within this week, consisting of rice 30 kg, Pulse 3kg, Oil 2 liter, Salt 1 kg, oral rehydration salts 5 packets, Soya protein biscuits 10 packets.
High-energy biscuits are being distributed to 13,916 families in four districts (Faridpur, Rajbari, Shariatpur and Magura). Each family will receive 3kg biscuits as a supplementary food for four days.
Concern and its partner agencies are monitoring the ongoing effect of the floods and are investigating the need to establish a second phase response with the delivery of a further food ration.
India
Concern's team is assessing the impact of the floods in four districts, and plans to provide life-saving services to 10,000 families in Bihar, including emergency relief items such as water purification tablets, buckets and soap as well as food rations and sheeting for temporary shelter. Concern will also provide tarpaulin sheets to 6,500 families and cooking utensil sets to 4,000 households whose houses have been washed away. In Orissa, Concern plans to provide livelihood restoration support to about 2,500 households.
Pakistan
Concern responded quickly to the emergency created by the cyclone and floods in three flood affected districts of Balochistan. Assisting 3,400 flood affected families, Concern provided emergency relief food packages containing wheat flour, dates, rice, pulses, oil and high-energy biscuits - enough to feed a family for two weeks. Essential non-food items such as shelter, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, jerry cans and water purification tablets were also provided to each of the families.
Concern has been one of the leading agencies in this humanitarian response. It was involved in the initial assessment of the affected area with other members of the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum. Concern's Emergency Program Officer was nominated to join the World Bank/Asian Development Bank team in their detailed assessment of the needs of the affected communities. We will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks.
North Korea
Access to many of the flood-affected areas is still impossible, and the full extent of damage is still unknown, but the Concern program team has managed to reach one of its established program areas and is hoping to provide construction materials for families displaced by floods and to support the reconstruction of a clinic in Unhung Ri. The program team will complete an assessment of other program areas as soon as it is possible to access them.
With the exception of public UN sources, reproduction or redistribution of the above text, in whole, part or in any form, requires the prior consent of the original source.

Pakistan: Livelihoods at stake as flood-affected areas struggle to recover

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)


KOT PALYANI, 27 August 2007 (IRIN) - Nizamuddin Lehri, deputy mayor of Nasirabad in Balochistan Province, southwestern Pakistan, gestured to his right where a water-ravaged landscape stretched into the distance in place of what was once a flourishing rice field.
"When the floods hit this area, over 40,000 acres of paddy were destroyed in just one union council," Lehri said. The loss of so much agricultural produce was going to hit the area hard because the yield per acre had ranged from Rs 20,000 to 21,000 [US$331-348], he said.
Almost two months after heavy monsoon rains and a cyclone, life has not returned to normal in the country's south and southwest.

According to the UN and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), more than 400 people died, some 2.5 million were affected and close to 380,000 people were displaced by the floods in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

Problems abound for local people, with the water still not receding from hundreds of square miles and more rain making its way across the region.

Crop damage

"This whole area has an agrarian economy with rice and wheat as the main crops. But all our fields have been destroyed and our livelihoods are in ruins," Akbar Buksh, a local farmer in the sub-district of K.N. Shah, told IRIN. K.N. Shah lies within the district of Dadu, about 350km southwest of Karachi. Two months after the deluge, the water is still running six to seven feet deep across vast tracts of farmland.

In Sindh floodwater damaged about 71,806 acres out of a total of 140,000 acres sown for this year's harvest, according to a report published in the Business Recorder, a leading national broadsheet, in early August. The report said rice was hardest hit - with an estimated 3.05 million metric tonnes of produce damaged. Overall, the report concluded, about 4.41 million metric tonnes of this year's rice, cotton and sugarcane crop worth about Rs 62.8 million (US$ 1,040,899) were destroyed.

Buksh looked unhappily at dark rain clouds forming in the distance, their reflection bouncing off what used to be fields of sugarcane but was now shimmering water flecked with trees, and boats that locals were using to commute between villages or to towns that had escaped damage due their elevation.

"We've had more rain now than I can remember ever before - and it still keeps on coming," he muttered, as the rumbling of thunder grew louder.

Cut off
"Close to 200 villages are completely cut off from the rest of the world somewhere over there. We don't know if they've managed to get any help or how many are sick or dying. If the rain comes again, they're done for," the farmer said.
Experts estimate that it might take the region a few months to recover once the monsoons are over. Locals in both affected provinces, however, insist the damage is far more serious than the authorities say, and claim it might take several years to recover.
"I have to go and sell my motorbike to get enough money to be able to survive with my family for the next couple of months," a harried looking man, who introduced himself as Khalid, told IRIN.

"Our lives have been ruined and no one seems to care," he continued, clasping a weak-looking child closer to him.

Behind him, a boat had drawn up to a makeshift jetty fashioned out of a road that had a 30ft gash in it caused by rushing water. Across the teeming water, some people had halted at the edge of the road and were preparing to swim across.

"This section of the road was washed away when the floods first came," Buksh said. "No one from the government or any NGO has tried to come and see what lies beyond. People are suffering there."

MAP International assists in aid to flood affected Pakistan

Pakistan has not yet recovered from the disastrous earthquake that struck Northern Areas of Pakistan on October 08, 2005 and now, another devastating disaster has hit the country.
On 23 and 24 June, 2007 coastal areas of Pkautan were hit by tropical cyclone Yemyin, packing winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kph) rode over the Arabian Sea to the South of Karachi and hit the coast of the south west province of Balochistan, dumping torrential rain over Balochistan and Sindh Provinces. The torrential rains and flash floods have played havoc in these areas and the numbers of causalities is rising in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The weather phenomenon has caused major loss of life, livelihood and property. So far, estimates of more than 1.5 million people across the three provinces Balochistan, Sindh and NWFP are homeless and have been badly affected. Most parts of these areas are still inaccessible and road communications are totally destroyed that has disrupted large scale rescue and relief work, which is being undertaken.
According to media reports, continuous rain, flooding and damage caused by cyclone Yemyin, in the southern Pakistan province of Balochistan, has now affected 1.5 million people, 250,000 are homeless and has claimed more than 100 lives (un-official according to media). Meanwhile, many people are still stranded in flood waters and waiting for rescue.
The current situation of the flood affected area is very miserable. People have lost their homes and livelihood. They have nothing left. Everywhere, people are looking for relief assistance to save lives. This assistance would help families to pass critical time in a good way and improve the living conditions.
In conjunction with other Global Relief Alliance members, Food for the Hungry, Medical Teams International, Christian Reformed World Relief, World Relief and World Concern, MAP International will directly fund 250 hygiene kits for the Pakistan emergency.
Items that are typically found in the hygiene kits that MAP will fund:
Soap, Towel, Combs, Tooth Brushes, Tooth Paste and Cotton Rolls amongst other items.
In order to fund this project and offset the risk of a potential malaria outbreak, $10,000 is urgently needed! Help us in the efforts to bring relief to those in Pakistan, an area that has not yet recovered from a crippling earthquake that occurred nearly two years ago.

Flood relief efforts in South Asia unprecedented test for aid agencies UN

Source: APP

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 7 (APP) The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the sheer size and scale of the floods in South Asia, as well as the massive numbers of affected people, poses an “unprecedented challenge” for governments and aid agencies in their relief efforts.
The UN estimates that some 20 million people are believed to be affected in India, Nepal and Bangladesh in what is being described as the “worst flooding in living memory.”
According to UNICEF, hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, possessions, livestock and fields and will have to begin their lives from scratch when flood waters recede.
Among the most urgent needs are shelter and access to fresh water, food, emergency medical supplies and basic household items.
Last Friday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it is sending up to three months worth of emergency rations to some 60,000 flood victims in Nepal.
However, given the number of families affected and the remoteness of the impacted areas, the agency estimates that it will need some $1.5 million to meet the basic food requirements of the flood victims in the Himalayan country.
Severe weather during this year’s monsoon season has wreaked havoc across South Asia in recent weeks. In addition to those suffering in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, some two million people were affected by devastating flooding in Pakistan when Cyclone Yemyin struck the country in late June.