Disaster Response Pakistan Project #6348

Oxfam providing immediate relief in Pakistan

by Oxfam America

Project Report | Nov 23, 2010
Oxfam blasts third "talk-fest" on Pakistan

By Maura Hart | Humanitarian Press Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oxfam blasts third ‘talk-fest’ on Pakistan as nearly seven million remain without shelter

Nov 11, 2010

International agency Oxfam today called on rich countries and institutions, meeting for the third time in as many months to discuss flood-ravaged Pakistan, to end the talking and start giving the $1.1 billion that remains unfunded in the UN’s current Pakistan Floods Emergency Response Plan needed to help save lives and start to rebuild the country.

Pakistan will host the Pakistan Development Forum from November 14-15, which brings together donor countries and international financial institutions to discuss rehabilitating communities hit by floods and support the reconstruction effort.

“This is the third major donor meeting since the floods and it is action that is needed, not endless talking. Funding for humanitarian work is in danger of drying up, yet the needs are still enormous, especially as winter approaches and nearly seven million people are still without shelter,” said Fatima Naqvi, Oxfam’s acting country director in Pakistan.

“It is time for donors to show leadership. They must commit long-term funds and ensure money starts to reach those who need it now, rather than making empty promises. Pakistan needs greater support to get back on its feet and rebuild from this devastating crisis,” said Naqvi.

More than 20 million people across Pakistan were affected by the floods. Nearly two-million homes were damaged or destroyed, roads and bridges were swept away, and schools and hospitals damaged. Estimated losses to public and private property amount to more than $10 billion according to the World Bank and Asia Development Bank Damage Needs Assessment Report presented to the Government of Pakistan on November 5, 2010.

The impact on the country’s already fragile economy has been devastating. Agriculture, which accounts for 21 percent of the economy and 45 percent of employment, was particularly hard hit. The floods wiped out more than two-million hectares of crops and killed millions of livestock and poultry.

While the response from some donors and the public has been generous (the US government leads international donors with more than $326 million committed), the UN’s Pakistan flood appeal for just under $2 billion is still only 43 percent funded. Many relief and emergency programs are in danger of being closed due to funding shortages.*

Oxfam says reconstruction can present a new opportunity to tackle Pakistan’s chronic poverty and inequality.

“The needs of the poorest and most vulnerable must be placed at the heart of the relief and reconstruction effort,” said Naqvi. “It’s crucial that communities are consulted in assessing and prioritizing reconstruction needs. It is also a chance for the authorities to take greater steps toward a more equitable distribution of land and prevent flood-affected families from falling into debt bondage. Land ownership is an important safeguard against poverty. But in southern Sindh, the area worst-hit by the floods, an estimated 60 percent of people are landless and many now have huge debts.”

Oxfam and its partners have supported initiatives in Sindh to redistribute state-owned land to poor landless women peasants. The program will be fully completed, closely monitored, and rolled out to other provinces.

* The World Health Organization and Unicef have both warned they may have to close some emergency programs and cut staff because of insufficient funding.

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Nov 23, 2010
Pakistan floods: Report from Nowshera

By Oxfam Staff | Staffer

Nov 4, 2010
Rebirth among the flood ruins

By Caroline Gluck | Oxfam staffer

Despite her joy at being a mother for the first time, one young woman in the flooded Sindh province of Pakistan worries about what the future holds for her family–a future that is uncertain for seven million people across the flood-ravaged country who remain without adequate shelter as the winter approaches.

The road heading towards Qaimjatoi, in Dadu district in Pakistan’s southern Sindh looked like it was disappearing into the river. A week ago, it was impassable; now, it was still surrounded by flooded rice fields, but most of the road had, at last, re-emerged from the waters.

All around us, rice fields and trees were submerged.

We were going to meet 18-year-old Sakina Ghaincha, living with hundreds of other displaced families on a narrow ridge of an elevated embankment. The families are living here in makeshift wooden shelters, with straw mats hung over the top as a roof. Colourful hand-stitched patchwork quilts, called rili and made locally, were strung along the sides of some shacks, affording families a little privacy and also some warmth when night temperatures drop.

Many people could see their flooded villages from the elevated bank, but couldn’t get back to them yet because the flood waters were still several feet high. For most, boat travel remained the only way in and out.

Sakina comes from Qaimjatoi, just a kilometer from where she’s sheltering. Heavily pregnant, she struggled through knee-high waters when the floods came in August. Two days later, she gave birth to a baby boy, Ghous Bux, in the open air.

“He’s our ray of hope in these difficult times”, she told me, shyly. “I was so happy after my son’s birth. It’s a miracle for us.”

Her son was her first child. There were no health facilities; but Sakina was lucky to find a traditional birth attendant who had also fled a flood-hit village and was sheltering on the same embankment.

Sakina also said she was very pleased to receive hygiene help and advice from Oxfam and its partner, SAFWCO, or the Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization, who have been working with the community to keep the area clean, distribute hygiene kits, provide water, and build toilets.

“They were the first organizations to work here,” Sakina said. “We’ve sat down with the health workers to hear about the importance of handwashing – how it can prevent disease – and good hygiene.

“Now I can properly take care of my son and give him a wash with soap. We have buckets to store water and I can take a bath. We had nothing before.”

Sakina smiles as her son wakes and wants feeding. She’s determined to provide him everything she never had – including an education, a chance to get qualifications, and a good job.

Despite her joy at being a mother, Sakina worries about the future. Her family house was completely destroyed in the floods. Her husband, a tenant farmer, will be unlikely to begin farming his land for at least six months as it is still under water. They lost their rice crop just before harvest-time.

She also feels anxious at the lack of privacy she has when she breast-feeds her son in her road-side shack. Trucks, motorbikes, cars, and animal-drawn carts all drive past as we talk.

“We have no idea what the future will bring. We just live here day to day,” said Sakina. “If we go back home, there’s nothing for us; and nowhere to live. We’re worried about finding work to earn money to feed our family”.

The daily difficulties and the approaching winter months are a worry not just for Sakina but for tens of thousands of other families in Sindh – the region that was the worst-affected by the floods, and where more than a million people still remain displaced because stagnant flood waters remain high.

“My only hope right now is my son”, Sakina said. “Because of my son I have hope.”

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