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Picture: www.thethirdpole.net

At least 49 people have been killed and 80 injured as the rains and flash floods wreaked havoc across Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunwa, Punjab and FATA Region.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) 75 houses collapsed due to the relentless rains and flash floods.

Province Deaths Injured Houses Destroyed
Baluchistan 18 22 49
FATA 15 25 3
KP 6 15 19
Punjab 10 18 4
Total 49 80 75

The number of casualties and damages is expected to further increase as more information is received from the affected areas. Most of the casualties resulted from roof collapses and lightning.

To date, Baluchistan is the worst affected province with 18 people dead, 22 injured and 49 houses destroyed.

Low lying areas have been inundated due to the continuous rains while several roads have been blocked at different places due to Landslides in the hilly areas making access difficult to the affected areas.

Severe weather hits the country every year (usually monsoon season happens in the mid of the year) with hundreds killed and huge tracts of prime farmland destroyed in recent years. However, such a high precipitation in the month of March with lots of losses is unusual; and is attributed to the impact of El Nino.

During the rainy season last summer, torrential downpours and flooding killed 81 people and affected almost 300,000 people across the country.

Response by Community World Service Asia:
Community World Service Asia is currently monitoring the situation. Its disaster response team is in close coordination with the Government authorities and local partners present in the affected areas and will propose the response strategy accordingly.

Contacts:
Allan A. Calma
Deputy Director
Disaster Management Program
Email: allan.calma@communityworldservice.asia
Cell: +92 301 5801621

Muhammad Fazal
Associate Director
Emergencies/DRR/Climate Change
Email: fazil.sardar@communitryworldservice.asia
Cell: +92 332 5586134

Alison Sneddon
Head of Communications
Email: alison.sneddon@communityworldservice.asia

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Haseena, a 28 year-old-artisan woman, belongs to the village of Dadu Panwar near Thatta. She started working after the floods in 2010. Haseena says that prior to joining the center established by Community World Service Asia, she did not know many types of embroidery stitches. She says that it was at the center that she and her fellow artisans learnt how to read and write their names.

“We used to give our thumb prints but now we are able to sign.”

Haseena feels that it was through the continuous efforts of the vocational teaching instructors and designers that opened up various aspects of local craft.

“We went to Karachi for a training. Previously, we didn’t know which products would be made out of our samples but once we went to Karachi and saw the market, we found out what our embroidered samples were being used for. When we went to the market again, we saw bangles, earrings, and bags that had been made out of embroideries similar to ours. If we work more passionately, we will be able do well,”

she says. 
Now that the center has been reestablished, Haseena says all the women in the village are very excited at the prospect of learning new skills and going to Karachi.

“We are very happy and are hopeful to learn further and move forward in life. If we get money from our orders, then we will spend that money in educating our children, running our homes.”

She feels that it should not only be the man’s responsibility to earn money for the house.

“This skill that we are learning will allow us to be independent and not rely on anyone else for financial support,” she adds.

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Mehnaz, 35, was born in Dhenda, a village in district Haripur. In the 1980s, her parents moved to Pakistan after the Afghan jihad following which her father was unable to earn a decent livelihood. The few small jobs that he did only helped bring a very small income home. As a result, Mehnaz and her family suffered from poverty and hardship. As per family tradition, Mehnaz was married to a man from her clan but despite making compromises, her marriage fell apart. Back at her parents’ home with her now year-old son, Mehnaz felt that she had added to the existing financial worries of her family. Without a place to turn to for help, she found herself falling into depression. It was during this low that she found out about the Community World Service Asia’s training in the Dhenda area. In just her second month in the dress designing trade, she was getting orders from people; she now earns about PKR 300/ per day.

Mehnaz’s determination to raise her son independently as well as contribute to household expenses led her to successfully establish a tailoring center for women in Dhenda. Currently, she is an instructor at the center with 20 women under her training. Her story is one of resilience to overwhelming circumstances and her passion to work despite tremendous challenges truly inspirational.

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Heavy rain lashing for last several days have wreaked havoc in different areas of Baluchistan as houses collapsed and roads washed away causing deaths in many areas. The rain also continued to lash on the provincial capital, Quetta.

Heavy rains with thunderstorm were also reported in Zhob, Loralai, Musa Khel, Harnai, Dukki, Pishin, Khanozai, Kalat, Mastung, Sibi, Bolan, Awaran, Nasirabad, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi, Dera Bugti and other areas of Baluchistan province which caused damages to mud houses and roads.

Two children were reportedly washed away in the flash flood and a man was killed while another eight people have sustained injuries due to lightning in the border area of Chaman.

Several roads were washed away due to hill torrents in Chaman, Toba Achakzai, Toba Kakari, Gwadar, Turbat and Khuzdar districts.

Power supply was also suspended in several areas due to heavy raining.

As per Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD), heavy rains are also expected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the next 4 days with High Risk of flash flooding in surrounding areas and very likely to intensify on Friday evening/night. The KP Government has already requested KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority and FATA Disaster Management Authority to be on alert and ready to respond should the situation worsen.

Community World Service Asia is currently monitoring the situation. Its emergency response teams are ready and will start emergency response activities if required.

Contacts:
Allan A. Calma
Deputy Director
Disaster Management Program
Email: allan.calma@communityworldservice.asia
Cell: +92 301 5801621

Muhammad Fazal
Associate Director
Emergencies/DRR/Climate Change
Email: fazil.sardar@communitryworldservice.asia
Cell: +92 332 5586134

Alison Sneddon
Senior Communications Officer
Email: alison.sneddon@communityworldservice.asia

Sources:
www.samaa.tv
www.ndma.gov.pk
www.nation.com.pk

2844
DurationSep 10, 2015 — Mar 10, 2016
LocationBara Teshil of Khyber Agency
Key Activities
  • Free Medical Consultations through Mobile health clinics
  • Provision of Free Medicines
  • Ante Natal and Post Natal Care Services
  • Sessions on Health and Hygiene issues
Participants20,000 flood affected people

2601
DurationAug 15, 2015 — Mar 31, 2016
LocationDistrict Sujawal of Sindh Province, Pakistan
Key Activities
  • Free Medical Consultations through Mobile health clinics
  • Provision of Free Medicines
  • Ante Natal and Post Natal Care Services
  • Sessions on Health and Hygiene issues
Participants20,000 flood affected people

2505
DurationSep 07, 2015 — Mar 06, 2016
LocationDistrict Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Key Activities
  • Vocational Trainings to Afghan refugee and Pakistani girls
Participants50 (45 Afghan refugees and 5 Pakistani girls)

2555
DurationOct 01, 2015 — Mar 31, 2016
LocationDistrict Sujawal of Sindh Province, Pakistan
Key Activities
  • Village Committee Formation
  • Monthly food distribution for five consecutive months
  • Agriculture inputs (seeds) distribution
  • Training on Integrated Crop Management
  • Trainings on CBDRM
Participants2,100 flood affected food insecure families

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Ameer khan, 39, migrated from Kalam to Swat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, around three years ago where he was living in a rented house of two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom. To support his family of ten including his mother, wife, six daughters, a son and a disabled father-in-law, Ameer khan sold peanuts on a cart in the market during winter. In the warmer months, he used the same cart to sell local cold drinks. Although with a daily wage of PKR 400/, Khan was not making enough to cover all of his household expenses, he was still able to manage somehow.

Khan’s struggles were amplified in the aftermath of an earthquake that hit Swat along with other areas of Northern Pakistan on October 26, 2015. While one room and a boundary wall were completely damaged, the other room was partially broken thus becoming unlivable. Khan was left with no choice but to shift his family to a neighbor’s home for a few days. Due to limited space, however, he had to bring them back to his own house where the only undamaged space, to live in, was the kitchen. To accommodate everyone in a single room, Khan had to sleep under the open sky during freezing winter nights.

“Ameer and his family have suffered a lot due to this earthquake and despite the damage to his house, he has not been included in the government’s earthquake survivor’s compensation list for reconstruction,”

says Jamil Ahmad, Kisan councilor, local government representative of district Swat.

“We tried our best to include him but unfortunately our efforts were futile as the list had been finalized and could not accommodate more people,” he added.

Among the more urgent needs of the communities, winterization support tops the list of most prioritized needs. Having identified the urgency of providing relief to earthquake-affected communities, Community World Service Asia, has thus far, provided support to 504 families through the funding support of UMCOR in the area.

Ameer Khan was also among the selected right holders for the winterization support assistance.

“I am very thankful to Community World Service Asia for helping me in catering to the most urgent needs of my family. With this support, at least we have something to cover ourselves with during this extreme weather”,

he said.

 

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A sister holding her baby brother while waiting to see the doctor at the BHU in Kuzkhana

In response to the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the Hindukish mountain range on October 26th this year, affecting thousands of people in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, Community World Service Asia set up a mobile health unit in district Shangla.  The Mobile unit started its activities on October 30th and continued operation as a static Basic Health Unit in Kuzkana, Shangla, after two weeks and still operational.

In its thirty two days of activities till December 10th, the Health Unit days catered to 4090 earthquake affected community members in its Outpatient Department (OPD),of which 2271 patients were women and infants, and 1820 men and children.  A total of 1033 laboratory tests were conducted to diagnose illnesses among affected communities in the mobile Laboratory and BHU.

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