Japan gives generous funding of $45 million for flood affectees        

As winter prevails, the needs of the 20 million flood affectees have been growing. The Government of Japan has very generously addressed the need of the nation during this critical time by providing the UN-HABITAT funding of $45 million to assist the affectees.  This substantial amount will go towards early recovery involving shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene, and land and community infrastructure.
6 months after the monsoon floods of 2010, the humanitarian community is moving towards an ‘early recovery’ phase. UN-HABITAT is increasing the provision of one room shelters to vulnerable households and is providing adequate shelters to extremely vulnerable households. Through the restoration and rehabilitation of water, sanitation and hygiene for the flood affected families, UN-HABITAT flood relief activities aim to reduce the incidence of mortality and morbidity due to waterborne diseases among communities by providing safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
 Efforts will be increased in assisting local governments, community organizations and the private sector through capacity building, institutional strengthening and training. Sustainable community recovery and return of IDP’s will be facilitated through the rehabilitation of community infrastructure and cash for work programmes targeting debris removal. Furthermore, ensuring that returning IDP’s have equal rights to housing, land and property, security of tenure and equal access to inheritance is an integral part of the project goals as well.
The Government of Japans funding will be instrumental in helping UN-HABITATs flood relief activities progress and expand to reach a broader population and affectively address the basic emergency and rehabilitation needs of the flood affectees.

Closing ceremony of the Rural Housing Reconstruction Programme

Near the 6 month mark of the floods that altered the topography of Pakistan

UN-HABITAT implements sanitation projects in 6 cities

UN-HABITAT and partner resettles Pakistan flood victims

Flood response: housing needs and hopes

By Siamak Moghaddam

When the 2005 earthquake – unprecedented in intensity, damage, size and area coverage at the time – struck AJK and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistani authorities were probably faced with the same questions that they are faced with today in terms of response and handling that calamity. In retrospect, we have seen that Pakistani capabilities have successfully re-housed almost half a million rural families within a three-year period after the earthquake. The decision makers adopted a “build back better” reconstruction policy, and followed a strategy of owner-driven reconstruction, uniform assistance package, provision of earthquake resistance designs and standards, provision of extensive technical guidance and training, use of local materials and technology, and establishment of an “assistance and inspection” regime. People were not relocated unless their land was declared “hazardous”.

The earthquake also provided an opportunity for the authorities to set up institutions for management of disasters, introducing such concepts as disaster preparedness, risk and vulnerability appreciation, mitigation, strengthening of local institutions, skills development, community empowerment (including empowerment of women), and so forth. Alas, the country was yet hit again by another unprecedented calamity this year, much larger in scope and coverage and destruction than the 2005 earthquake, before the measures taken after the earthquake for disaster preparedness, mitigation and response were fully implemented.

Although the extent of damage to property, infrastructure, and housing throughout the country by the floods is enormous and the decision makers are tasked with finding answers to daunting questions that they may not be prepared for, one could argue that this is a “window of opportunity” for the country to regenerate and rebuild itself, elevating Pakistan to a higher level of development and social advancement. An opportunity to institutionalise, with much greater strive and faster pace, disaster preparedness and management. It should be remembered that the 2005 earthquake took place in the context of federal government, which also set up a centralised body – ERRA – to oversee rehabilitation and reconstruction. The floods have taken place at a time that the institutional landscape of the country is in the process of change and a number of functions of the federal government are being devolved to the provinces, in particular the responsibility of the environment, population, housing and urban planning. Therefore, the provinces have an opportunity now to develop and institutionalise their new responsibilities in the light of the huge demands placed on them by the 2010 floods.

Interestingly, the floods have not only washed away homes, livelihoods and infrastructures, but have also exposed the vulnerability of a great mass of the population in KP, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. Indeed, the floods have been an eye-opener for many to realise that a sizable population still lives in certain areas in extreme poverty and backwardness, lacking basic social facilities or services. Surely this time round, this category of people should not be ignored if Pakistan is to rise above this disaster and regenerate itself!

I raise this point to emphasise the point that the “build back better” concept not only relates to the physical reconstruction and rehabilitation of the housing and physical assets in flood-affected areas but it also means paying attention to the socio-economic infrastructure, improvement of livelihoods and providing opportunities for most vulnerable people to come out of the misery that they have been subjected to.

The housing sector - what have we learnt?

According to government figures, some 1.74 million households have lost their homes. The level of investment and effort for reconstruction of this sector is gigantic and runs into billions of dollars. The task ahead seems daunting and impossible. However, it could be argued that Pakistan has proven once before that it can rebuild its housing sector and that it can do it again if the right policies and strategies are adopted.

Let us first look at some comparative experiences in Pakistan. The 2005 earthquake hit a population who mostly owned their land, and mostly lived in isolated communities or small settlements in areas with difficult weather, terrain and accessibility. The floods have affected rural areas and settlements as well as towns and entire cities. Further, a significant flood-affected population does not have the land to rebuild their homes and lives. Therefore, the issue of land is of paramount importance for the government or the provincial administration to address in both rural and urban areas.

Looking back at the response to recent disasters could also lead to other lessons for application to the current flood response. In the reconstruction strategy of the Kashmir earthquake, a staged assistance package of Rs 175,000 was provided to the affected population together with earthquake resistant designs and standards and an extensive technical assistance programme, free of charge. Communities were also mobilised en mass for earthquake resistant construction and awareness. People were central to the decision on their own housing and fully involved in the reconstruction of their own homes. Women were actively engaged in the decision making at household level. At the end of the Rural Housing Rehabilitation Programme 2009, some 436,543 houses (95 percent of the destroyed houses) were completed of which 97 percent were determined as compliant with ERRA standards and hence safer.

However, in case of the Balochistan earthquake in 2008, the reconstruction strategy consisted of a uniform package of one-time housing cash grant – Rs 350,000 for completely destroyed or severely damaged houses, Rs 50,000 for partially damaged houses – to the affected population without any technical assistance or compliance to any particular reconstruction standards. As a result, nearly two years after the earthquake in Balochistan, the reconstruction rate has been found to be extremely low and the quality of construction is also extremely poor.

The comparison between two similar type of disasters and different response strategies exhibits clear consequences for different strategies. The costs of the two solutions are different, but it is evident that a little more investment pays off in a grand way. Financial assistance provided with technical guidance is not only possible but also more effective than just providing houses. Organising the communities and letting people, particularly women, making informed decisions regarding their own housing through awareness campaigns and training of skilled and semi-skilled workers, and use of indigenous materials and techniques, ensures ownership and increases the people’s self-esteem and national pride. Direct assistance to the extremely vulnerable families such as widows, elderly without care, persons with disability and orphans would also demonstrate that Pakistanis care about their countrywomen and countrymen.

Given the magnitude of the current disaster and financial implications, the decision makers surely do not have an easy time in arriving at the right policy and strategy, particularly in the housing sector, as this is one of the hardest hit and the most expensive. Political devolution also makes this process certainly more complicated. However, it is possible to seize the opportunity and rebuild the affected areas (and indeed the country) in line with the dreams that the founders of Pakistan once had. Pakistanis are clearly resilient people and their capabilities have been proven in the case of the 2005 earthquake. There is indeed hope.



The writer is a country programme manager at the UN-HABITAT Pakistan.