DRR Report

1 DRR IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT


Contents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Project Description: ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Back ground: ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Rationale and Objectives of the Project: .................................................................................................. 6

Project Intervention: ................................................................................................................................. 7

Current Response to DCO’s call: ................................................................................................................. 10

Outcomes and Impact at VO/CO and individual level (Key findings of the field visits and overall

achievements) ............................................................................................................................................. 12

Limitation to Current Efforts: ...................................................................................................................... 19


Executive Summary

This report reflects the attitudinal changes in community behavior towards disasters and

disaster preparedness within the community prior to floods. The successive flooding in

years 2010 and 2011 created havoc in Sindh. People lost their lives, livestock and

belongings. The situation was made adverse due to lack of disaster resilient approach

within the community. The vulnerability of the region to frequent disasters, the sustenance

of poverty reduction and livelihood projects was troublesome.

Analyzing the crisis, CWS-P/A launched a project titled “Alleviating Poverty through

Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Development with a Disaster Resilient Approach

in District Thatta, Province Sindh, Pakistan” in 2012. The project activities were primarily

based on building disaster resilient capacities as means of providing sustainability to the

livelihood projects against the disasters. Different sets of trainings were offered, targeting

community members including men and women equally, teachers and students to build

their capacities on disaster resilient techniques. Mobile Knowledge Resource Center

(MKRC) was utilized to conduct the trainings and disseminate information to the

communities. The communities were mobilized using the three tier mobilization method,

forming Community and Village Organizations at hamlet and village level. DRR trainings

were conducted for these COs and VOs. Different techniques to build safe houses, design

emergency evacuation plans and life saving techniques were introduced as a part of the

trainings.

The COs and VOs apart from implementing these learnings took different initiatives to

sensitize the community members on different aspects relating to health, SRH and

livelihoods. Roads were built to facilitate easy evacuations. Refreshers on DRR were

conducted by the COs and VOs periodically to update the community members on the

floods.

The results of the field visits depict that the communities were mobilized on the whole and

were on their feet to tackle any disaster situations.


Project Description:

Back ground:

Sindh is one of the most vulnerable regions, prone to disasters like cyclones, earthquakes

and floods. Successive flooding and record rainfall in the years of 2010 and 2011 destroyed

the middle and southern part of the Sindh province, including Mithi, Tharparkar, Tando

Muhammad Khan, Chachro, Sanghar, Badin and Dadu. Due to relatively flat land gradient,

the rain water inundated the large areas of land.

The 2010 floods was the largest flood in living memory that brought unprecedented loss of

human life and property. According to BBC, 1500 people died and around 20 million people

were affected country wide by floods. Crops were destroyed and infrastructure was

demolished by the floods. According to NDMA, over 15000 cattle heads were lost in Sindh

only. Many of the victims of the 2010 floods were still in the recovery phase when the 2011

floods struck. Unlike 2010, when over flooding of river caused havoc, this disaster was

triggered by exceptional rainfall in areas within Sindh. The 2011 floods compounded the

damage of the previous disaster. In severely affected areas, food insecurity and

malnutrition were already at critical levels when the new wave of rains and floods strike

them again. Essential infrastructure including roads, bridges and markets had been

severely damaged and many remained impassable. A large number of farmers lost their

livestock on way to safe shelter and lot many of them didn’t get time to evacuate. There was

hardly a place in the severely affected area that was free of standing water.

The adverse situation was exacerbated due to a lack of disaster risk reduction techniques,

disaster preparedness knowledge and a low skill set of the local community and

government to deal with the emergency situations. The local community had no clue about

how to react to the floods to mitigate the losses which were announced couple of days

before it actually hit them. There was neither an evacuation plan, nor the people of

community were equipped with any life saving techniques to deal with the perilous water

tides. “We could only manage to save ourselves, leaving all our belongings behind”,

Hussain Bux, resident of village Ranta and a member of the village organization (VO) cited

his losses during the 2010 floods with great pain. “All our livestock was drowned and

important documents were washed away. Fertilizers, seeds and crops worth of rupees

five lacs were swept away by the water”, he added. According to him, the water tides

were as high as 10 feet. A similar account was related by Rasheed, a farmer in village

Soomar Mir Bhar union council Bijora, in district Thatta. “We had no proper

communication channels, and had to evacuate at the last minute, resulting in massive

losses,” recalled Rasheed.


The community lacked proper communication channels to stay updated about the situation

of floods. As most of the villages don’t have electricity available to them, they had no

available networks to get regular alerts on the floods situation. Also the houses they lived

in were constructed in the conventional way; at the level of the ground with kitchens inside

and no high shelves. The house couldn’t stand even low level floods and their houses

submerged in water very easily. Also with kitchen inside their houses, they were prone to

catching fire easily. The roofs were not tightened enough and were blown away by the

strong winds.

CWS-P/A conducted a (KAP) survey of 59 respondents to assess the “Knowledge, Attitude

and Practice” of the community towards the disasters. Apart from the fragile structures

they lived in, the communities were not aware of safety evacuation methods in case of an

emergency. 29% of the respondents had an opinion that non disaster resilient houses,

while 49% of the participants responded that lack of DRR knowledge made them made

them more vulnerable to the disasters. 56% of the respondents weren’t aware whether

early warning system existed in their village. 59% weren’t aware of who to contact in case

of any disaster. 71% responded that the women weren’t allowed to evacuate on their own

in case of emergency evacuation and they were dependent on the male counter parts for

evacuation. None of the village had an emergency evacuation plan in place. 83% of the

respondent weren’t taking any measures for safer houses that were more resilient against

the disasters. 85% of the community members lacked any emergency tool kit to save their

important documents.


Rationale and Objectives of the Project:

According the statistics after the devastating floods of 2010 and 2011, around 17 million

people had joined the ranks of people living under the poverty line. Communities, in Thatta,

are largely dependent on agriculture for their main source of livelihoods and successive

floods in the years 2010 and 2011, had an adverse effect on their livelihoods. The national

disaster management authority (NDMA) concluded that 92 percent of livelihoods were

destroyed during the consecutive flooding for two years in 2010-11. This included crops,

small shops and businesses, educational and health facilities and residential units all across

the district.

Analyzing the crisis, CWS-P/A launched a project titled “Alleviating Poverty through

Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Development with a Disaster Resilient Approach

in District Thatta, Province Sindh, Pakistan” in 2012. The project was aimed at reducing the

poverty by minimizing their dependency on the agricultural products for livelihood and

promoting income generation skills that are locally marketable. The other major

component of the project was promoting Gender Equality, Adult Literacy and Awareness

on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

One of the reasons for dismal socio-economic situation in the district is the lack of

sustainable development initiatives that go beyond charity and actually enable people

become more self-sufficient. A critical part of the situation is the community’s ability to

survive frequent natural disasters and be prepared to minimize loss of life and property in

the face of future disasters. Economic revival is closely intertwined with disaster resilience.

All the previous development was washed away by the floods due to lack of mechanical

approach of the community towards dealing with the emergency situation. Keeping in view

the poor coping ability of the community to the disasters, it was identified that until the

community is not made resilient towards the disasters, long term prosperity and

sustainability cannot be ensured. For this reason, disaster risk reduction component was

made the base of all the poverty alleviation and development initiatives to enable the

community to develop a sustainable mechanism of maintaining the development

interventions.


Project Intervention:

The DRR activities are designed to address the regions vulnerability towards frequent

disasters and to build their capacities for mitigation of losses caused by the disasters which

in turn would help in poverty reduction through long term sustenance of projects. The

three-tier community development approach was employed to mobilize the communities.

This community mobilization approach consists of establishment of community led

organizations which serve as the agent of change at the local level. The three tiers

Community Organization (CO), Village Organization (VO) and Local Support Organization

(LSO) are formed at the hamlet, village and union council level respectively. Since the

initiation of the project around 107 COs and 30 VOs have been developed to date. The

achievements of some of the COs and VOs are shared in the later sections of this document.

The activities under the DRR component are undertaken through the Mobile Knowledge

Resource Centre (MKRC). The MKRC is a mobile museum with lot of practical workshops,

simulation models along with posters to learn about disaster and how to reduce the impact

of the disaster. The MKRC activities are designed based on KIDA model, ensuring

participants to develop Knowledge, Interest, Desire and Action. The MKRC trucks travels

with all the equipments and the training center is setup where ever the training is planned.

During the information disseminating visits of the MKRC truck, the loud speaker is used by

the social mobilizers and the community members are gathered by using the truck’s

megaphone. During a similar visit, MKRC truck visited the village Haji Muhammad Dal in

union council Tando Hafiz Shah as a part of its information broadcasting run throughout

Thatta district. The truck was parked outside village Numbardar Muhammad Sadiq’s house.

Announcements were made through the loudspeakers and villagers working in the field

gathered at his place. The social mobilizer introduced the people about the MKRC Truck

and the current efforts CWS-P/A was undertaking to make people aware about the

upcoming floods.


Emergency contact list was shared with the villagers and they were asked to put up the

numbers at the frequently visited locations in the village so everyone knows who to contact

in case of emergency evacuation. Information of the focal persons was collected by the

mobilizers to send the villagers updates about the latest situations.

The activities planned for the DRR components are as follows:

Community focused trainings that involve men and women equally

School focused trainings: Beneficiaries of this includes both school students and teachers

Safer construction models focused trainings

The objectives of these activities were to involve men, women and students and teachers

equally to build their capacity on DRR techniques. These trainings covered different topics

on different types of disasters, their reasons and safety techniques. Exercises of making life

saving bottles, sand bags and boat making were introduced to the participants to survive

and minimize the losses of the natural disasters. The participants were introduced to safer

techniques of building houses and construction of places to limit the effects of natural

calamities. Town mappings were also conducted in different villages and community

members identified safe and vulnerable locations within their villages.

Following are the activities conducted till now:

The below table shows details of the community focused DRR trainings;

Trainings Number of Participants

Type of

Trainings Total Trainings Conducted Male Female

Disabled

Male

Disabled

Female Total

Community

training

15

173 227 0 0 400 Male

Trainings

Female

Trainings

Mix

Trainings

5 5 5


The below table shows details of safer houses construction trainings;


Type of

Trainings Total Trainings Conducted Male Female

Disabled

Male

Disabled

Female Total

Safer

Houses

training

4

75 25 0 0 100 Male

Trainings

Female

Trainings

Mix

Trainings

3 1 0

The below table shows details of school focused DRR training;


Type of

Trainings Total Trainings Conducted

Stude

nts

Male

Student

Female

Teacher

Male

Teacher

sFemale Total

School

training

7

205 145 5 3 358

Male

Trainin

gs

Female

Training

s

Mix

Training

s

4 3 0


Current Response to DCO’s call:

Floods in 2014 created havoc in Punjab and almost all the southern Punjab was inundated

by the water tides. Keeping in view the situation in Punjab, the DCO Thatta called in a

meeting for updating the civil society organizations about the current situation of floods in

Punjab as well as the devastation it might cause in Sindh. The government officials also

discussed the possible aid and relief efforts from the aid agencies and the support from the

development practitioners for developing a tent city in case of any floods. Regarding the

updates on the floods, the authorities remained very careful in sharing details avoiding any

panic within the media and more importantly within the communities.

Some of the other important points shared during this meeting were:

The district authority declared Makli hill a relatively safer and accommodating place for the

flood affected migrants. The DCO shared that the authorities can host 10000 people in

Makli in case of any emergency. Also separate shelters for livestock were to be setup to

provide safe place for the animals. Additional police squad was made ready to provide

security to the villagers from theft.

NGOs working on DRR were advised to encourage community members to identify safer

places at their hamlet, village or union council, as to avoid over flooding of people at a same

place.

The DCO also claimed of deploying heavy machinery at the vulnerable points at the river

bank for maintenance.

Bushes were removed from the river banks as the river embankments were weakened by

the rat holes in the bushes.

During one of the field visits, CWS-P/A staff was informed by the community that a safe

evacuation place was taken in custody by a local influential person in UC Tando Hafiz Shah,

which is considered to be most vulnerable village to the floods. The matter was shared with

the government officials, who promised to take up the matter officially.

At the end of the meeting, assistant deputy commissioner, examined the Mobile knowledge

Resource Centre’s (MKRC) truck used by CWS-P/A. The ADC was briefed about the

activities carried out through MKRC truck and the trainings conducted for the communities

since the initiation of project. The ADC commended CWS-P/A’s strategy of taking

communities towards self resilience and reducing their dependency on government

resources. The ADC suggested a close coordination between the government authorities

and CWS-P/A efforts of information dissemination for maximum results.


The government officials are given a visit of MKRC truck and briefed about the CWS-P/A activities.

In view of the flood threats, CWS-P/A increased the frequency of the MKRC truck field visits

in different villages. The social mobilizers actively disseminated information to the

communities especially the villages that were considered vulnerable even to low level

floods. The updated water levels at Guudu and Kotri barrages were shared with the people.

CWS-P/A also developed an emergency contact list, comprising of key contact numbers of

government officials, PDMA, DDMA, Pakistan Navy and contact persons from CWS and the

local community. The list was shared with the community members and was put up at most

frequently visited places like mosques and retails shops.


Outcomes and Impact at VO/CO and individual level (Key findings of the field visits

and overall achievements)

Since the initiation of three tier community mobilization method by CWS-P/A at UC Bijora

in district Thatta, a lot has been achieved by the local Community Organizations (CO) and

the Village Organizations (VO), both at the hamlet and village level. During the field visits

conducted, a number of community members from different COs and VOs were

interviewed. The findings are based on the narratives of community’s experiences of floods

in 2010 and 2011, their knowledge level on disasters and different activities completed or

undertaken by the CO/VO since their formation. The findings will also share the individual

experiences faced by the people in times of disaster and the attitudinal differences after

attending DRR training.

Village name: Sumar Mir Baher

CO Name: Mir Baher Taraqiati Tanzeem

CO President (Male): Imam Bux

CO President (Female): Minni

Village Sumar Mir Baher is located away from the river bank and there are no threats of

any damages to the village from the flooding unless the river bank is broken. The village

suffered huge losses during the floods of 2010 and 2011, as a result of a broken river bank.

Rasheed, 39 and member of the CO, shared his experiences and

the losses suffered during the 2010 floods. “We (villagers) had

no awareness about the floods and did not have proper

communication channels to stay updated about the flood

situations”, he said. Recalling his earlier experience, he

mentioned that no emergency warnings were given to them and

they had no preparations to tackle the emergency situation and

weren’t equipped with any evacuation techniques or knew any

plan to evacuate. “The water had already entered the village

when we got to know about the floods.” Rasheed added. The

village had suffered great losses in terms of livestock and all the

important belongings were washed away with the 5-6 feet high

water tides.


The villagers evacuated to Makli, the nearest tent city and stayed there for almost 50 days.

Facilities at the camp were inadequate, and there was shortage of medication, ration and

tents. The CO members shared that there wasn’t any support mechanism developed for

them by the government or any other organization to help them settle after they return.

“We had to sell our remaining livestock to set ourselves back again”, remarked Imam

Bux.

Sharing their learning from the DRR trainings, Imam Bux mentioned said ”Majority of

village’s houses are built the new houses on the DRR techniques: tightening and mud

plastering their roofs, separate cooking spaces outside the houses, planting trees

around the village and emergency bags have been prepared to carry all the important

belongings were implemented by the villagers”.

Using different communication tools, including radios given by CWS-P/A and the networks

built through different COs/VOs, the villagers had now chalked out an evacuation plan in

case of any emergency. Imam Bux said “The CO had briefed every villager about the

evacuation plan and the information was shared with each member. The villagers were

already in contact with the truck owners to help them evacuate the elders, women, kids as

well as their livestock to a safer place.”

Achievements of CO:

Minni, president of female CO, shared achievements the village has made after CO

formation. She highlighted the link road constructed with the financial help from the

politically influential people, the savings made by the CO and with the labor support

provided from the villagers. “The construction of the road has given us an easy access to

the road and it would minimize the losses in case of urgent evacuation” Minni added.

Mentioning the savings made at the CO level, she said that the savings are used to

undertake all the activities planned by CO.

Another achievement made through the community organization was to get the school

operational for the children. Imam Bux mentioned that the local school wasn’t functional

and a request was put up by the CO to Education District Officer (EDO) to get it operational.

The request was taken up and the school is now running and all the children attend this

school. The CO encourages all the villagers through its bi-monthly meetings to send their

kids to schools. Different other activities were taken up by the CO including conducting

awareness sessions on SRH, importance of education and savings.


VO Name: Sindhu Tarakeeyati Tanzeem

VO President (Male): Nim Himayati

VO President (Female): Samani

Hussain Bux, president of the male CO at Ranta, recalled his bitter memories from the 2010

floods. According to him, no official warnings were issued by the officials and they had to

evacuate in hassle, leaving behind their valuables and animals.

The lack of evacuation plan was mentioned by the respondents

to be the one of the major cause of haphazard evacuation.

“After attending the DRR training from CWS-P/A we are

better equipped in mapping the evacuation plan. We got to

know about the floods scale after the DRR training.” added

Hussain. The villagers shared that if the Kotri Barrage receives

3.5 lacs cusec water, the Ranta village would drown.

Emphasizing on the importance of keeping the documents like

National Identity Card (CNIC), land owning documents, degrees

and other documents, Hussain Bux mentioned that he could

not get the government support through Watan Card as he lost his NIC. “We have now

prepared emergency bags to keep our documents save and ready to carry in case of

emergency evacuation”, Hussain further told.

After attending the DRR trainings, people in villagers were better equipped to monitor the

floods situation through news and patrolling the river bank. Village Disaster Management

Committee (VDMC) was formed to patrol the river and to observe the water level and to

stop any one from breaking the river bank. Sand bags were placed by the committee

members at the weaker spots of the river. The villagers were aware of the different sounds

made through the mega phone, to update on the intensity of the flood.

Mumtaz, general secretary of the VO, in preparation of the evacuation plan, had taken up an

initiative to get a petition signed from the villagers and put up a request to the DCO to allot

tents for them and adequate space for their animals at the camp. He mentioned that their

VO had spent all their savings on the construction and operations of the vocational training

center made by CWS-P/A.

Samani, president of female VO, mentioned that 56 women were trained in DRR under the

four COs. “We (women) were previously relying heavily on the men in case of

emergency evacuation. But now after attending the DRR training, we are now

confident that we can evacuate on our own”, added Samani.


An emergency evacuation drill was

performed by the women and all the

women children, carts and livestock

were evacuated from the village

taking their luggage, grains,

emergency bags, utensils, and

important documents.

Women performing emergency evacuation drill in village Karo Mallah

Talking about their achievements at the VO, Samani mentioned that their current savings

were 4000 at the time and they keep spending the savings on helping the needy women

and those who need to buy books for their children. “There is no school for children at the

village and the kids have to go to Do Do Nazim which is 1.5 kilometers away,” added

Samani. “Around 40-45 kids out of 250 school going children attend the school regularly.”

She mentioned that the villagers are planning about having a school in their own village.

Village: Hassan Jakhro

VO name: Naseeb

President: Phul Jakhro

“The river bank once broke back in 1988 and the village got flooded. Same happened in

2010. We had warnings to evacuate the place but we did not evacuate till the last

moment”, said Phul Jakhro,

Commenting on the sufferings the villagers faced during 2010 floods, the villagers said that

the government officials didn’t help them evacuate. Also the payments of the Watan Cards

weren’t made to the flood affected people.

Ali Sher, member of the VO, stated that the villagers had learnt to disseminate information

through phones/megaphones/masjids. “All the houses in the village were built on the

newer safer structures after the floods. Emergency bags are prepared and evacuation

plans are outlined already. We are in contact with the vehicles owners to evacuate our

livestock in case of evacuation.” he added.

“NGOs gave eyes to the blind,” remarked an elderly villager Jan Muhammad, “they gave

education to our kids”, commending the efforts of the development organizations working

in the region.


Talking about the works of the VO, Phul Jahkro said that their VO raises about 7000 rupees

per month from their savings. They have helped the people to buy mosquito nets and

mospels to avoid diseases. Also VO has designated people to clean the village at weekly

basis. The VO and their respective CO have emphasized on the education a lot during their

meeting thus the enrollment of the students in the school is high and around 120 boys and

girls from the village attend the school.

Village: Ghulam Muhammad Soomro UC Bijora

VO Name: Mahsallah Tarqiati Tanzeem

President: Ama Adan

Ama Adan, the president of the female VO, mentioned that they didn’t know about the

water levels at river Indus and the floods hit them with surprise and they had to climb up

the roofs of their houses to save themselves and their livestock drowned.

“After the formation of the VO the people feel more connected for the relevant news

update on the floods situation across the country” added Adan. The VO shared the

updates with all the community members periodically. Evacuation plan was already

prepared by the VO in case of emergency evacuation.

Achievement of Women at VO level:

The Bismillah Tanzeem has achieved a lot since its formation. Following is a list of some of

their achievements:

Around 60 women were trained at the vocational training center in handicrafts and

have been linked to the market.

Women were mobilized by conducting exposure visits and the community was

informed about their work.

The VO, on its own, has conducted refresher on DRR drills for at least 40 women in

different villages.

Previously, women had to go far away to refill water tanks. VO, using its savings, has

installed a hand pump and supplied clean water pipes to all four COs.

Roads were leveled for easier access of the cars to the village.

The general level of awareness on health and hygiene issues has increased in the

community, courtesy CWS awareness sessions. Importance of using new syringes to


escape HIV & AIDS and using hygienic tools by the dentists is widely known by the

community.

VO Name: Naee Roshni Taraqiati Tanzeem

President: Mehram

Mehram, sharing his experiences of setting up the VO, told that after the floods of 2010 they

were in connection with different NGOs for the rehabilitation of the village. “While other

NGOs gave us material goods that would perish away with time, CWS-P/A gave us what

can’t be taken away”, added Mehram, commending the capacity building initiatives taken

by CWS-P/A in the disaster stricken areas.

Village Shaikh Soomar UC Tando Hafiz Shah

Government Boys High School

Since Tando Hafiz Shah is located right at the bank of the river, even four lacs cusec water drowns the village. And though the villagers were keenly following the news on radio and television, not much preparation was done.

CWS-P/A has just not trained the community members but to students as well. Government high school in sheikh Soomar village was selected to conduct the trainings for the students as boys and girls from 16 villages attend the school. Two teachers and 50 students were trained on DRR methods. They had conducted one refresher for the students on their own.

The students from the school have formed a school committee after receiving the training on DRR. They had prepared a DRR Corner in the school where they had displayed the committee’s role and responsibilities, displayed emergency contact list and basic information of what they had learnt during the training. Ramzan, a student of grade 10 and president of the student committee, said that students were important link of communicating the messages across the villages as the details shared by the school teachers are then carried to their homes by the students.

Students displaying tactics of surviving an earthquake and briefing the emergency plan


During the discussions, the students displayed different tactics to survive cyclone,

earthquake and floods. The discussion revealed how they were left vulnerable during the

2010 floods and how better they were informed by the training they attended.


Limitation to Current Efforts:

The communities were mobilized and

updated about the flooding situations.

People had their evacuation plans in place

and were on their feet to deal with any

emergency situation. But the main issue

to the current evacuation plans was the

construction of the Makli Bridge. All the

villages that had planned to evacuate to

the camp city of Makli had to cross the

bridge and the bridge was closed for

heavy traffic as the maintenance work

was undergoing. So their plans to move

their livestock will be recoiled if there

were any floods during the time of

construction. The communities had

though identified alternative longer

routes to evacuate, but that would require

much more time in evacuation than

estimated originally.

A warning board by the Government of Sindh to use

alternative routes due to closure of Thatta-Sujjawal

Bridge

DRR Report

Documents

Transcript of DRR Report