1 DRR IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT

2 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 DCOs 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

3 DRR IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT

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

Womens 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.

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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 didnt 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.

5 DRR IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT

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

of floods. As most of the villages dont 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 couldnt 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 werent aware whether

early warning system existed in their village. 59% werent aware of who to contact in case

of any disaster. 71% responded that the women werent 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 werent 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.

6 DRR IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT

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

Womens 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