Flood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report
Transcription
Flood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report
Flood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad Campus Organized by: in collaboration with: 1 Index of Content 1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION.................................................................. 5 2 FUND RAISING AND DISBURSEMENT ...................................................................................... 6 2.1 Fund Raising .................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Fund Disbursement .......................................................................................................... 6 3 RELIEF ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Distribution of food items in remote areas of charsadda ................................................. 7 3.2 Cash for Work in Rajjar ( District Charsadda) ................................................................. 9 3.3 Distribution of Agricultural Inputs, Blankets,Clothes and School Bags (Ambadeer) ... 10 3.4 Distribution of food items in remote areas of kohistan .................................................. 11 3.5 Medical Camp in collaboration with Ayub teaching hospital at nowshehra.................. 12 4 ON-GOING REHABILITATION INTERVENTIONS ................................................................... 15 4.1 Adopting a village .......................................................................................................... 16 4.2 Financing education of flood affected students.............................................................. 17 Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad Flood relief and rehabilitation: core team Professor Dr. Khan Gul Jadoon Director, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad (CIIT) [email protected] Dr. Bahadar Nawab Head of Development Studies Department CIIT, Abbottabad [email protected] Mr. Naveed Jan Incharge Career Development Center CIIT, Abbottabad [email protected] Dr. Sajjad A. Madani Head of Computer Science Department, CIIT, Abbottabad [email protected] Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The recent floods in Pakistan have washed away most of the achievements of the past 60 years. The houses, agricultural fields, live stock, and the very fabric of our society have been shattered by these floods. COMSATS Institute of Information technology Abbottabad responded well in time to this national crisis and on the third day of the floods, a team of volunteers from the faculty gathered and devised a flood relief campaign. CIIT Abbottabad with partner universities including, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, and Norwegian University of life sciences, Norway raised PKR 5.3 million for flood victims within short span of time. After achieving short term goals, CIIT Abbottabad is already working on medium/long term goals. The idea is to work on concepts like “adopt a student”, “adopt a family”, and “adopt a village”. This document discusses all the activities that are already executed by CIIT Abbotabad and also gives some glimpses of the road ahead. Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad 1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July after heavy monsoon rains affected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, lower Punjab as well as parts of Balochistan. It is estimated that two thousand people along with close to a million homes have perished so far. The United Nations estimates over 20 million people are suffering and homeless with over 160,000 square kilometres affected as a result of the flooding, exceeding the combined total of the affected of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. However, the death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the number of people killed so far in the floods. Around a fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater due to the flooding. The U.N. is concerned that aid is not arriving fast enough, while the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water. The Pakistani economy has been harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. Structural damages are estimated to exceed 4 billion USD, and wheat crop damages are estimated to be over 500 million USD. Total economic impacts are estimated at about 43 billion USD according to official estimates. Flood has caused damage in all 24 districts of KP Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk from deadly water-borne diseases in Pakistan Diarrhoeal incidence: D I Khan 42%, Tank 29%,Swat 25%, Charsadda 23% and Nowshera 18% Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Abbottabad, along with its academic activities also strongly emphasises on social work, especially at the time of any natural disaster or calamity. During the 2005 earthquake COMSATS actively participated in different relief activities such as fundraising, development of database for registration of affected people, voluntary work at medical camps, hospitals and food distribution points etc. During the Sawat Conflict, COMSATS Abbottabad, played its role by collecting funds for IDP’s and by sponsoring students of the affected area studying at the Institute. Keeping the tradition, CIIT Abbottabad, has established COMSATS Flood Relief and Rehabilitation Committee keeping in view the current disaster scenario and is actively working on the agenda to provide relief and to rehabilitate the affected people. 2 FUND RAISING AND DISBURSEMENT COMSATS Abbottabad being academic and research institute always take lead in fulfilling its social responsibilities. The active involvement in the emergency, relief and rehabilitation activities of the earthquake (2005), the Swat IDPs (2008) and recent devastating flood (2010) are just few examples. 2.1 FUND RAISING During the 2010 flood, the student, faculty and staff of COMSATS Abbottabad started fund raising campaign. The campaign was first limited to campus, however, keeping in mind the nature of devastation the students and faculty went out of the campus to city and towns for door-to door collection. The faculty also contacted partners’ institutions abroad. Vienna University of Technology and Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway are worth mentioning where the students and faculty collected and send an amount of PKR 1.8 million and 1.2 million respectively to the COMSATS Abbottabad relief and rehabilitation funds. Following is the total fund raised so far. 2.2 S. No 1 Fund Source COMSATS student, faculty and staff Amount (PKR Million) 2.3 2 University of Vienna Austria (faculty, staff and student) 1.8 3 Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) Norway (students, faculty and staff) 1.2 Total 5.3 FUND DISBURSEMENT COMSATS Abbottabad has constituted flood relief and rehabilitation committee who is making the decisions of funds allocation and disbursement. The committee is headed by the campus director and all heads of departments and students representatives are members of the committee. It is worth mentioning that money collecting from COMSATS campus as well as from partners’ institutions in abroad is not used Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad in any kind of administrative, transport or other cost. All such costs are covered by the COMSATS Abbottabad. 3 RELIEF ACTIVITIES From the above mentioned funds, the following relief activities has undertaken so far S. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 8. 9. 10. 3.1 Relief activities Food ration, cooked food distributed amongst affectees in district Charsadda [2 times] Clothes, shoes and other household items distributed amongst affectees in district Charsadda [2 times] Established medical camp in district Nowshehra and distribution of free medicine in the affected population Food and clothes distributed in district Nowshehra [2 times] Food ration distributed in district Kohistan (Dubair) [2 times] Established medical camps and distributed free medicine in district Kohistan (Pattan) Distribution of Construction Equipment , Shelter and Cash for work (30 Families, Rajjar,Charsadda) Distribution of Fertilizer,seed ,Clothes and School Bags(100 Families,Ambadeer, Charsadda) Financing flood affected students Adopt a village Total Values of relief activities in PKR (in millions) 0.25 x 2 = 0.5 0.15 x 2 = 0.30 0.10 0.20 x 2 = 0.40 0.30 x 2 = 0.6 0.20 0.45 0.20 1.0 Under progress Rs. 3.75 ( Million) DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD ITEMS IN REMOTE AREAS OF CHARSADDA To reach the affected population, on August 1, 2010, a team of COMSATS Abbottabad’s students and faculty went to DOABA and Charsadda. There we distributed 200 packs of two weeks Rashan (5 kg rice, 3 kg Daal, 2 kg sugar, I kg Ghee, ½ kg dates, ¼ kg tea and salt) in 200 households. Besides this, the team was able to distribute 10 “Daigs” of rice in three villages and two camps. Other then the food items around 60 especial packs of female clothes and other personal used materials prepared by our four females students were also distributed among the female in the camp. Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad We tried our best to reach the most affected and not easily accessible population, which of course involve some degree of risk, however, while taking part in rescue and relief operation and trying to help contribute save lives one has to accept some risk. We thanks Almighty Allah that everything went very well. Just to share with you that in Charsadda we found university students, welfare societies, philanthrops, I/NGO from across the country but they need more The needs and requirement is huge in Charsadda, Nowshera, Swat, Kohistan and AJK and we need to continue our fund raising and onward distribution campaign at whatever level we can. Right now we are exploring the possibilities of reaching Kohistan where some people are badly in need. We are in touch with some local organizations and as soon as we hear about the clearance of route to Kohistan (Dasu) we shall try our best to reach there. Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad The second visit to the same area was carried out on October 01, 2010. The same items were distributed among the identified persons. 3.2 CASH FOR WORK IN RAJJAR ( DISTRICT CHARSADDA) A revolutionary idea of “Cash for work” was introduced in Village Rajjar( Distt: Charsadda). Under this program, 30 families were selected . these families taken shelter in Government run schools and they were facing a threat of vacating the schools due to the opening of schools after summer vacation. These 30 families were convinced to erect tents over the demolished homes and start construction. The families were provided construction equipments, tents and 15 days wages for labor. In fact the male members of these families worked themselves and we provided them daily wages. This idea was so good that in a period of two months, those families were able to shift back and the idea was adopted by all the NGO;s working in district Charsadda. This project cost us Rs.450,000. Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL INPUTS, BLANKETS,CLOTHES AND SCHOOL BAGS (AMBADEER) Under this project, 104 bags of seed and Urea was distributed among 100 farmers of Village ambadeer( District Charsadda). Besides 70 blankets ,winter clothes and school bags were distributed in this village. This village in located on river bank and the agricultural lands have been converted into barren rocks. This intervention helped the farmers to rehabilitate their livelihood. 3.3 Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad 3.4 DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD ITEMS IN REMOTE AREAS OF KOHISTAN The CIIT Abbottabad rescue and relief operation is continued. This time a team of CIIT Abbottabad faculty and students went to Kohistan (Dubair) on Friday, August 13, 2010 and distributed food items in 200 affected household. Right now there is less than 200 household in Dubair proper but affected people from upper Kohistan also come there for seeking food and other consumables. The food packet of CIIT Abbottabad include (Basmati rice: 5 kg; Wheat flour: 5 kg; Daal: 2 kg; Oil: 1 kg; Sugar: 2 kg; Tea: ¼ kg; Dates: 1 kg; Dry milk (everyday): ½ kg; Soap: 2; and Salt: 1 pack). Each packet cost Rs. 1405. Dubair is a small town on Karakuram Highway between Besham and Dasu. More than half of the village houses and shops are completely washed out by Dubair Nullah. Five people also died in the village due to flood water. Some of the homeless people have now shifted to Besham and other nearby villages, however, the male members of the household do visit Dubair for different reasons. The road connection Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad of down country with Gilgit-Baltistan and China is cut off at this place and the only food supply to upper Kohistan is through army helicopter and to some extent by a trolley cable built over the Nullah. Second visit to the same area was carried out on October 12, 2010 where similar packets of selected items and quantity was distributed among the selected and identified families in the affected area. 3.5 MEDICAL CAMP IN COLLABORATION WITH AYUB TEACHING HOSPITAL AT NOWSHEHRA A relief camp was established on Saturday (August 28th, 2010) in the flood affected area (Pashtoon Garhi) of District Nowshera. This village has 3500-4000 households in five Mohallas i.e. Kandi Payan, Kandi Bala, Rahim Abad, Ajab Bagh and Shaheed Abad). The village is situated on the right bank of the Kabul River…hardly 600-700 meters away from the river. During flood the water first enter in the village early in the morning and by 4:00 PM the water level reach to 5 feet and people started vacating the village. By night time the water level reached to 19 feet on the river side of the village (Pandi Payan) and 8 feet on the highest point of the village. This level of water was maintained for more than 50 hours. The water level went down after few days, however, this complete and in some places partial inundation of the village resulted into death of 8 people, the same number is still missing and around 3000 big animals (buffalo and cows) died. The entire goat, sheap, chickens died in the village including 40 poultry farms. The number of human death would have far more if the army helicopters would have not rescued them from the top of the village Mosque which is located at some height and where the water level was 8 feet. Around 450 mud houses have completely demolished leaving all the consumables and assets under the debris and many more Pakka Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad houses are cracked and some are about collapse. Since this was a farming community whose main source of livelihood was agriculture and livestock therefore, the standing crops, livestock and stored grains have all destroyed. Not only that but the dead animals, fermented wheat grains under the debris and the fungus inside the rooms are emitting such a foul smell and attracted so many flies that it is almost impossible at least for new comers and outsiders to stay there for few moments. As a result the disease ratio is very high and is expected to rise more with each passing day. All the wells have been filled with mud and this direct intrusion of river water to the groundwater have contaminated the shallow drinking water. The drainage system is totally dismantled, toilet to pit piped are blocked and soakage pits have collapsed…meaning that water supply and sanitation system is no more working and the village community is dependent on water if it is supply by some philantrops/NGO however, its quality is much more questionable. After a lapse of more then one month the village is still giving a deserted look…only about 10% of the population is back, the rest are still in the camps or with relatives. However, most of them come in the morning…some are removing the mud from inside the rooms and others are searching for small assets and consumables and are washings whatever is possible for reuse. Inspite of all these damages no government or private organization was able to reach the worst affected Kandi Payan of Pashtoon Garhi and when we the first reached there, the poor local community was therefore extremely grateful to COMSATS Abbottabad. In the village we did the following interventions: Free Medical Camp: A free medical camp was established in the village for which announcement through loudspeakers in the village was made one day before and once we were there. A group of seven senior, five junior and four medical students’ (altogether 16) volunteers from Ayub Medical College accompanied us. COMSATS Abbottabad is extremely grateful to all those volunteers’ medical officers. The medical doctors were specialized in the field of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Gyne Medicine Surgery Peads Dermatology ENT Eyes Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad The doctors checked 300 registered patients (majority of them were women and children) and we provide free medicine to all of them. The major diseases in the village were: 1. Scabies 2. Disease of Gastro-intestinal tract 3. Viral Conjunctivitis (eye) 4. Wounds and superficial injuries 5. Depression Distribution of clothes, shoes and food Packets of female, male and children clothes along with shoes were distributed in more than 200 poor household. A list of most deserving households was prepared with the help of local activist before the Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad visit. Priority was given to widows and female headed household. A food rashan was also distributed but only among the widows in the village A cash amount in the poorest windows and females and few poor male was also distributed in the village. Cash distribution was not the policy of COMSATS Abbottabad so far, however, this money was from some faculty and those in the field who don’t want to be mention. On the way back another village (Behram Khel) in Nowshera Kalan but on the other side of the Kabul River was visited. The story of human and animal loss and damages to property and assets were even worst then Pashtoon Garhi in this village. The same items were distributed around 150 households in this village but due to lack of time we could not establish medical camp there. Research survey in the village We conducted research survey in Pashtoon Garhi. During the survey the focus was on understanding the wealth ranking, livelihoods, drainage, sanitation and water supply systems, and damages in the village. The objective of the research survey was to look into the possibility of long term research and development intervention in the village. We were also interesting to explore the possibility of COMSATS medium and long term engagement in the village in terms of COMSATS proposed three packages of: Adopt a student Adopt a family Adopt a village We used survey, individual interview (both female and male), focus group discussion (two female two male group) and transect walk for collecting the data At the end the COMSATS Abbottabad need your continuous financial and moral support and request you to please give a serious through in adopting any or a mix of the above package. The Committee greatly appreciates the great support of the administration and all volunteers and wish that we continue our relief and rehabilitation interventions 4 ON-GOING REHABILITATION INTERVENTIONS Being academic and research institute COMSATS Abbottabad wanted that education and research be embedded in the rehabilitation interventions. This is a different approach from NGOs and government where the affected people are considered mere recipient of aid and are not much concerned about its impacts and aftermath. Contrary to the NGOs and government approach, we try to find the research and educational aspects in rehabilitation work. Right now COMSATS Abbottabad has started the following two rehabilitation programs: Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad 4.1 ADOPTING A VILLAGE During emergency and relief interventions, the students and faculty also conducted need assessment survey of badly affected and selected areas in the four districts i.e. Charsadda, Nowshehra, Kohistan and Swat. Based on the survey, initially one village (Mumtaz Abad) in district Charsadda has been selected and adopted. About the village: This village consists of 39 households. Except three cemented houses which are heavily damaged, all other houses were totally collapsed. All these households are now living in the tents on the rabbles of the damaged houses. This is poor and landless, daily wager and farming community. There is extremely low literacy, the highly qualified person in the village has 12th grade education. Open well are the common source of drinking water and open defecation was a norm before flood. The shallow water is now heavily contaminated by direct intrusion of flood water and open defecation is still in the village. There is no school or health facility in the village and the very few school going girls and boys have to walk for at least two kilometer to reach the schools. The flood damages the life, livelihood and property of the village community. Skin, gastroenteritis, minor injury and psychological disorder are the common diseases in the village. The village community is disappointed from the relief and rehabilitation activities of the government and NGOs. The interventions were both little and less relevant and not as per the needs and expectations of the village community. The following interventions are underway in the adopted village: 1. Comprehensive need assessment survey: The survey was carried out with our partners from Norwegian University. The village was selected for rehabilitation. A detailed survey of the physical infrastructure required in the village is underway, and once completed, work in the area will be started with more action on ground. 2. Identified needs and priorities of the community 3. Understanding people perceptions about relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction and their coping strategy to deal with the aftermath of the flood disaster and revival of their livelihood 4. Selected the more affected, needy and poorest household in the village 5. Cash-for-work to selected family to construct shelter of at least one room for themselves. Maximum PKR 30000/- per family is targeted. The family will work to construct their own home. Construction material will also be provided free of cost to the family as well as by working him/her self, the head of the family member will have his/her house constructed and will have a job as well. 6. Distribution of four blankets (the number may vary depending upon the size of the family) in the affected and poorest households Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad 7. Development of cost-effective water filtration plant for provision of clean and safe water to the community (This is one of the very serious issues in the flood affected areas nowadays. All the water wells are filled with contaminated flood water and the availability of clean drinking water has become a privilege nowadays). We at COMSATS have already developed a low cost water filter which will be provided to each of the families with basic training of how to replace the contents of the filter after a specified amount of time. 8. Planning, designing and developing low-cost, culturally acceptable and environment friendly toilet and sanitation systems in the village 9. Hygiene promotion and awareness raising in the village community 10. Education and literacy boost in the village. This is one of the most important aspects and a lot is planned in this regard. As a first step, funds will be arranged for the construction of a primary school so that kids of up-to 8 years of age do not have to travel atleast 2 kilometers one-way to reach the school. The school will be provided with all the basic stuff including some books for a small library and few old computers. 4.2 FINANCING EDUCATION OF FLOOD AFFECTED STUDENTS Many families in the flood areas are not able to pay the educational fee of their children. To continue the educations of the poor and affected students, COMSATS allocated PKR one million that are directly paid to the concern institutions. Many of the COMSATS students are from the affected areas who also request for fee wave-off. The list of effected students are long, however, 350 students are short listed out of which the top 50 most affected and poor students will be helped out by submitting their tuition fee of PKR 10,000. The list of 50 students selected for financial relief is given below. S. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NAME AMIN UR RASHEED MEHRAN KHAN IFTIKHAR ALI ISMAIL KHAN HAROON UR RASHEED JAN ALAM S. ASHFAQ AHMAD KHAWAR ABBAS BLOCH HAFIZ M. NAVEED WAQAS RAHAT ALI S. SHUJAAT ALI SHAHZAD ALI HAROON ALI KHAN FATHER NAME HAROON UR RASHEED ABDUL LATIF AFREEN KHAN SAJAD SALEEM MIAN AZIZ UDDIN ADUL REHMAN NASIR S. AHMAD SHAH GHAZANFAR ABBAS KHAN REGISTRATION NO FA07-BEC-012 FA10-BEE-019 SP08-BEE-186 SP09-BTN-028 FA09-ERS-106 FA10-PHM-035 SP08-BEE-019 DOMICILE SWAT SWAT SWAT NOWSHERA MALAKAND KOHISTAN SWAT FA06-BCS-044 JHANG PUNJAB NIAZ AHMAD SIDDAQI AZIZ KHAN M. SEHRAB MIAN REHMAN ULLAH SHAUKAT ALI KAHN FA07-BCS-038 FA07-BBA-071 FA07-BCE-019 FA07-BEE-013 FA07-BEE-057 D.G KHAN NOWSHERA SWAT CHARASADA D.G KHAN Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 S. MURTAZA SHAH RAO M. ASKAM NAZIM KHAN M. IRFAN FAWAD AHMAD M. ALI.MUNIR SHAH FAISAL NOMAN KHAN EHTSHAM SAGHEER MAHRUKH AJMAL PARACHA MUHAMMAD SOHAIL ASHRAF 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 SAAD WAQAS AMIN RAFIQ ULLAH LKHAN SAHIB ZADA RAHIL KHAN MOHSIN KHAN OSAMA JIBRAN ALI MUDASSIR RASOOL WASIF SHAHID KHAN ABDUL NASIR SHAKEEL AHMAD ABDUL RAUF QAISRANI M. UZAIR ATTA ULLAH KHAN ATTA ULLAH ZIAUDDIN KHAN IBRAHIM KHAN M. ALYAS M. KHUSHAL AIMAN SHAKEEL ADIL SHAH AMAN ULLAH AHMAD ULLAH JAN M. ARSLAN SHAH WAQAS ANWAR M.MOOVIA M. S. SHAH RAO ARIF JAMIL KHAN QASIM KHAN ABDUL KARIM MUTAUUAKIL MALIK.MUNIR AHMAD DILAWAR KHAN M.YAQOOB SAGHEER AHMAD FA07-EPE-030 SWAT FA08-BCE-050 FA08-BEE-046 FA08-BEE-087 FA08-BEE-106 MUZFAR GARH NOWSHERA KOTADDU MALAKAND FA08-BEE-113 FA08-BTN-051 FA08-EPE-012 FA08-EPE-069 KOTADDU SHANGALA CHARASADA KOTADDU M. AJMAL PARACHA FA08-PHM-065 NOWSHERA M. ASHRAF MIANMAQBOOL AHMAD SAFDAR KHAN SHARAFAT ULLAH KHAN FA09-BCE-033 PESHAWAR FA09-BEE-004 FA09-BEE-031 BATKHELA MARDAN FA09-BEE-035 CHARSADA INAYAR UR REHMAM MUZAFAR KHAN ABDUL HAFEEZ LIAQAT ALI KHAN FA09-BTN-060 FA09-EPE-005 FA09-EPE-015 FA09-ERS-022 NOWSHERA CHARSADA SWABI SWAT GHULAM RASOOL TAHIR KHAN SHEHZAD MAQBOOL UL REHMAN SHAH RAWAN HAEEZ ULLAH QAISRANI M. SHAREEF FA08-EPE-065 FA10-MBO-017 KOTADDU SWAT SP10-MBA-037 SP07-BEE-013 AJK SWAT SP08-BCE-059 SP08-BCS-001 SP08-BEE-006 SP08-BEE-049 SP08-BEE-124 SP08-BEE-144 SP08-BEE-154 SP08-BTN-048 SP08-BTN-052 SP08-EPE-068 SP08-EPE-069 SP08-EPE-080 SP08-EPE-115 SP09-BBA-030 SP09-BCE-035 TAUNSA KOTADDU SWAT SWAT SWAT NOWSHERA D.G KHAN CHARASADA CHARASADA CHARSADA CHARASADA CHARASADA NOWSHERA NOWSHERA D.G KHAN HUSSAIN GUL M. KHAN NIAMAT ULLAH KHAN MUHAMMAD M. RAFIQ SHAKEEL AHMAD S.MUJAHID SHAH SAAD ULLAH KHAN M. MERBHAN SHAH M. ANWAR M. ABDULA MUJAHID Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad