Vision21 Team visited the flood
relief camps for the assessment of recent situation and need in the
flood hit areas on 16th Sep 2010.
CHARSADDA
Our first point of stop was
Charsadda. We visited a UNICEF & HRDS supported affectee's camp
in Meraprang Tehseel. This camp was sheltering nearly 232 families,
who had fled from the nearby villages of Drabb Majoke and
Faqiarabad. We met the camp incharge, Jawad Khan, who told us about
the affectees. The people residing in the camps told us that 90% of
the houses in those villages had been washed away. The living
conditions in this camp were good as it was clean and had good WASH
facilities. According to the affectees they had no major medical
problems. However they complained about the non-systematic and
irregular supply of food to them.
We visited their villages,
which were near to the camp. Two of the local people accompanied to
guide us towards the village. After a 10 minutes drive we were in
Drabb Majoke. The village presented a sight of complete
destruction. The houses and mosques were ruined. The children were
roaming around the streets, which were now turned into an open flat
ground. A group of the local people started gathering around as we
walked into the village. They were all walking with us and telling
us about the problems they have faced. They told us that what they
need most at that time was the money and resources to rebuild their
homes and go back to their work and rehabilitate themselves. They
complained that no one from the Government has reached them. After
we took a visit to the village we came back to drop the people to
the camp and moved forward to visit other camps.
Our next stop was a free
medical camp in Charsadda set up in a paper mill by Ummah Welfare
Trust. It was a one bedded medical camp with one doctor and one
female nurse. When we reached the camp it started raining. May be
that was the reason that no affectees were around in the camp at
that time. We met with the nurse who had been working in the camp
for more than a month. She informed us that the affectees of nearby
villages visited them and the OPD of the camp was near 400 among
them most number was of female patients. She explained that the
common diseases that people come up with were UTI, Eyes infection,
skin infection, diarrhea and gastro. The nurse also told us about
their main relief camp was in the Govt. Degree College Charsadda,
where 6000 affectees were sheltered.
We moved forward to go to the main camp, which was near to the
paper mill camp. We met with the camp managers there. The camp
incharge told us that they were providing shelter and food to near
6000 affectees in that camp. They provided the dry ration packs
containing the supply for a week and stoves to the families in
their tents where they cooked for themselves. The Camp Incharge,
Sardar Iftikhar also told us that UWT was planning for the
rehabilitation of the flood victims in their next phase of relief
work. The plan was to made the prefabricated two rooms houses for
them. They told us that they were working on the plan. They also
had another medical camp over there. The OPD in that camp was 300.
They required medicine for UTI, diarrhea, eyes & skin
infections. UWT was also running their relief camps in Muzaffargarh
and Multan.
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NOWSHEHRA
After Charsadda, we went to
Nowshehra according our plan. On entering the Nowshera city, we
observed that many of the camps and single tents on the roadside
that we had visited during our first relief plan in August were not
there as the people had moved back to their houses or main
camps.
We stopped first at a khema
basti of above 100 tents set up underneath the foothills at the
roadside. The people residing in these tents were the affectees of
Mohalla Zareenabad, which was just at the walking distance to their
tent. The houses of the mohalla zareenabad were still flooded and
partially submerged in water. The people in this camp complained
majorly that no one was helping them. The camp incharge told that
they were provided the tents and crockery in the start but after
that they had been on their own to arrange for the food and their
living needs. An old woman who also lived in zareenabad told us
that her house was still drenched with water and the only source of
their income was a Suzuki pickup, which had been damaged in the
flood water and no one helped her taking that out of water. The
people complained that the aid did not reach them. They are
helpless. They told us that they needed food, clothes and bedding,
because the autumn / winter season was due to start and they did
not have any provisions for that.
MUZAFFARGARH
On 17th September we set off
for Muzafargarh at 630 am from Rawalpindi. We decided to take the
route via Mainwali, Bhakkar and layyah. This is the eastern side of
River Indus and we thought we may get a glimpse of damage inflicted
along that way. On reaching Mianwali, we could see the pine tree
still half covered in the flood water. The people on shops and Fuel
stations near that also shown us the marks of the flood water till
the mid of the walls. Mianwali is one of the districts where a
large number of people are affected due to the floods. The affected
population in Mianwali is reported to be more than
700000.
Along the way we came across
another problem. About 60 kms form Muzaaffar garh we ran out of
CNG. Apparently There is no CNG available between Bhakar and
Muzaaffargarh . This is nearly 150 kms. We got a shock when we were
told there was no petrol available as well. We literally had to beg
one station manager to provide us a gallon of petrol which will
atleast take us to Muzzaffafargarh. ... Different reason were being
given point into lack of supply form up and down country as well as
washing out of local petrol refinery due to floods. After the scare
we however finally managed to reach Muzafafrgarh at 3
pm.
In Muzaffargarh the first
camp that we visited was the one set up by Al Khidmat foundation to
collect the donations and aid items for the flood affectees. We met
with the camp incharge, Arsgad Mehmood Lagharie, who briefed us
about their relief camps and activities in Muzaffargarh. He told us
that from the statistics they had gathered about the flood demages,
near 63 union councils were washed out of the floods. He also told
us about the other relief camps set up in Muzaffargarh. We then
headed towards other camps.
The first camp we came
across was the Falah-e-Insaniyat relief camp. There were 100
families sheltered there who have fled from Baseera, since the
flood devastated their homes in the local villages. The trust was
providing cooked food to the affectees daily. They had also set up
a school for the children. The camp incharge, Fahadullah told us
that there were 106 children registered in the school. They had
hired two volunteer teachers from among the affectees living in
that camp. The school was set up in the mosque and children were
provided with the course books including English, Urdu, Islamyat,
Maths, Science and Social Studies.
The camp also had a sewing
centre for the women. The 'Silai Centre' had 5 sewing machines for
the training of the women in the camp.
There was a medical camp set
up at the entrance of the main camp. There was a rush of women and
children in the medical camp. The doctor mohammad shafique told us
that the common medical problems among the affectees were those of
fever, skin and eyes infections and diarrhea.
The Falah-e-Insaniyat team
working in the camp seemed quite coordinated and well informed
about the relief activity.
After this we reached the
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf [PTI] relief Camp where a large number of
people were waiting for the distribution of cooked food at 5pm. The
camp was called Thermal Colony camp.
We met with the workers of
Tehreek-e-Insaaf at the camp. The Camp incharge who was also the
general secretary of PTI in Muzaffargarh took us to the tent where
he showed us the map of flood affected areas of Muzaffargarh and
detailes about the demages the flood has caused. The information
was quite organized as the camp Incharge explained to us through
the map of the Muzaaffargah district about the areas affected and
their relief camps in the districts. He told us that the total
population in the tehsil jatoi, kot addu, alipur and muzaffargarh
is 2635903. There were 11000 registered families with PTI relief
camps in the district. He explained that Muzaffargarh, being in
middle of both Indus and chanab is badly affected in the floods. He
told us that the PTI had set up its 14 relief camps in kot addu,
manawan, baseera, shah jamal, khan garh, shehr sultan and ali pur.
PTI workers told us that they provided cooked food to the affectees
daily at 5pm.
It is a sad commentary that
in our visits we saw no activity of relief from the government. The
affectees we talked to, also complained that no aid from government
has reached them yet. Rather they have also taken their identity
cards in hope of receiving aid and they did not get anything but
mere promises. The NGOs and volunteer groups are much more visible
and helping people in different ways. The problem is of the lack of
coordination in relief activities. The slow response and
miscoordination is the result of the lack of governance that is the
major cause behind several problems that we face at present. The
lack of governance and lack of preparedness to eliminate the risks
of disasters has been exposed in the post flood scenario. The time
has once again given the call to take this point as a new start and
seeing the opportunity in this adversity to reconstruct and rebuild
the country with a fresh zeal and in a better way.
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In
all the camps that we visited in Charsadda, Nowshehra and
Muzaffargarh we have assessed the following needs in those
camps:
Food:
Dry ration supply /ready to eat food on regular basis according to
the basic nutrition rules. The food supply was either short or
irregular. There is a need of proper assessment before the
distribution of aid items.
Medical Care
&Health:
The medical condition in the camps we visited was comparatively
better that the other things. The affectees were provided with
medical treatment and medicine in almost all camps. However there
was need of the medicine for skin and eyes infection, ORS for
children and anti malarial medicines.
Clothing and bedding:
As the winter season is due to start soon so there is need of warm
clothes, and bedding for the affectees
Schools and skill
centers:
We have noticed during our visits that only one of the camp had
school & a sewingl centre for the children and women. while
there is also the need of setting up schools for children and
training centers for the women to empower them so that they can
start helping themselves.
Clean Drinking Water:
There is a need to arrange the proper sources of clean drinking
water
Rehabilitation:
No work for the rehabilitation has been done or started yet in the
areas we visited. The work of reconstruction of their houses,
roads, schools and infrastructure needs serious attention and will
to be started for the timely rehabilitation of the flood
victims.
VISION21 RELIEF PLAN2
After our assessment visit, we at Vision21 have made the following
plan of action as the second phase for the relief of
affectees:
1. Distribution of ration packs containing supply of food for two
weeks to 250 families in Charsadda Meraprang Camp
2. Distribution of clothes and shoes to women, men and children in
Meraprang camp in Charsadda
3. Distribution of clothes and shoes to men, women and children in
Nowshehra Camp
4. Donation of medicine to the Ummah Welfare Trust in
Charsadda
5. Registration of affectees in Charsadda and Nowshehra for the
next phase of rebuilding houses and skill transfer plan of Vision21
as a third phase of flood relief
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Vision 21 is Pakistan based non-profit, non- partisan
Socio-Political organisation. We work through research and
advocacy. Our Focus is on Poverty and Misery Alleviation, Rights
Awareness, Human Dignity, Women empowerment and Justice as a right
and obligation.
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