WASH 1

 

 

Summary

The worst-ever floods in Pakistan’s history, that started late July 2010, left a long trail of death and devastation, claiming over 1600 human lives, damaging infrastructure, and destroying standing crops . The economic losses caused by the calamity pulled the country back in time. The magnitude of the calamity can be gauged by looking into the facts that nearly 20 million people – half of them teenagers or below – have been affected by floods. Among them, over six million have no access to clean drinking water. A vast area of over 160,000 sq km (20 percent of the total landmass) has been flooded with complete devastation of standing crops, mainly rice, cotton and sugarcane, spread over 3.2 million hectares.

The estimates so far made available by different organizations suggest that five million people need shelter and thousands others need for medicines, as around 1.3 million houses have been destroyed or damaged. More than 5,000 miles of roads and railways have been washed away, along with some 7,000 schools and more than 400 health facilities. The total cost of the flood damage is over $7 billion. That is nearly a fifth of Pakistan’s budget. People are looking for shelter, clean drinking water, food, clothing and medicine.

When Pakistan was endeavoring to recover from the disasters of October 2005 devastating quake, the recent flooding has further multiplied the miseries of its populace, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa being the most effected province of the country. While there was a focus on plane areas of the province like Charsadda, Noshehraetc, the rural community was remaining out of sight from media and consequently out of focus from the interventions of the relief agencies. District Shangla is one of the remotest regions of the province locating at a distance of about 210 KMs from Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The recent flooding took lives of nearly 50 people in the area while it left hundreds of families homeless. The asset destruction is even huge of the assessments carried out, as Haashar field Teams observed that there are some villages in UC Pirkhana located at a  three hours distance by foot at top hills having no or partial accessibility.The outcome of this catastrophe was that, many of the natives of the area had their days and nights inside tents in the killing winter season approaching as a nightmare.The affectees being the residents of remote rural area had little or no voice to express their sufferings. There was an intense need for helping the community to avoid further casualties.

In the above mentioned context HaasharAssociation with the help of CONCERN Worldwide was the first organization gearing up through its life-saving interventions to help people facing emergency in Shangla. It immediately carried out a rapid assessment to gauge the extent of destruction and quantum of assistance needed. Haashar Association is an organization enjoying strong footing, ground presence and sound track record in the affected area. Transparent surveys were carried out to reach the most effected people. A comprehensive relief package was accumulated keeping intact the local needs, cultural sensitivity and user-friendly factor. Distribution sites were finalized keeping in view the ease of the people by taking opinion from community, line department etc. Five distribution events were held in the area to outreach the overall 1453 afectees. To make transparency certain, local administration was also ensured to observe the distribution gatherings.

The assistance provided by CONCERN World Wide through its RAPID project in collaboration with Haashar Association has greatly helped people to cope with the impacts of the catastrophe. It was found that the successful implementation of the project has largely helped to shrink the miseries of the affectees and has paved the way to save many precious lives especially those of children and women, the most vulnerable segment of the society.

This report underlines the overall episode of the implementation of project undertaken by HaasharAssociation with the support of CONCERN Worldwide.

Beneficiary Table

Overall Impact of the Project:

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and provincial government, Shangla in KPK was considered to be amongst the hardest hit areas,As a result of the flood, the inhabitants of the target area were struggling to survive, most of their household belongings were either badly damaged by the floods and landslides, or washed away. Due to the diminishing Savings, the flood affectees were resorting to selling their few remaining belongings at much cheaper rates or getting loans from other people. The project distributed household NFIs such as quilts, kitchen sets, water storage (jerry cans), tools kits and floor mats/plastic sheets and torches. The distribution of NFIs helped the affected population to cope with the situation and meeting theirimmediate and urgent needs, supplementing the few belongings they had. The items proposed were of immediate use, especially considering the onset of the winter season. Jerry cans are useful to fetch water from the water source and to store it safe and covered form any germs thus minimizing the chances of water born diseases.  Quilts provided under the project have enabled them to cope with severe winter weather, especially women and children. Tool kits are helping the affectees remove the debris thus it became symbol of motivation towards the reconstruction phase.

Results of the impact assessment indicated that 100% of the respondents shown their complete satisfaction with the composition and the quality of the NFI package. Furthermore it was revealed during the impact assessment that 93% of the sampled respondents received the NFI package against the already issued tokens personally while minor 7% of the respondents, who were unable to come to the distribution point due to the some disability, women headed  or having some elderly or sick person in the family, received their NFI package through their relative and that too on production of the original CNIC of the beneficiary and proof of some relation with the original beneficiary(mostly uncle, cousin, or brother). Statistics gathered during the impact assessment show that the beneficiaries were very well informed and oriented about the composition, time, date and point of distribution in advance by the project staff thus ensuring transparency and accountability.