Red Cross Blogs

Pakistan: one year after the floods

By Sarah Oughton
July 27, 2011 at 10:00 am

One year on from Pakistan’s worst floods in 80 years, around 12 million people are still struggling to survive without any sustained means of income.

Pakistan is still suffering. The scale of the disaster, which began at the end of July 2010, was huge: one fifth of the country was submerged in water and a staggering 20 million people were affected.

Paula Baizan, British Red Cross recovery programme manager, says: “The Pakistan Red Crescent was quick to respond and with support from international Red Cross partners has helped more than two million people with emergency relief.

“The focus now is on helping communities recover their livelihoods and strengthening their resilience for future emergency situations.”

After the trauma they experienced last year and with another monsoon season on the doorstep, many survivors are fearful there will be more devastating floods.

“People are afraid of the sound of running water,” says Ea Suzanne Akasha, psychosocial delegate for the Danish Red Cross. “Some had so little time to flee and are still suffering panic attacks. They don’t know how they will cope if it happens again.”

 

Teaching vulnerable communities how to identify potential threats, and setting up village committees to plan and prepare for disasters is at the core of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies flood recovery programme.

This also involves getting committees to register with the government so they are linked in with early warning systems. Ultimately, the programme will benefit 172,000 people in 39 villages prone to hazards.

“We’re also helping people make their homes stronger, so they’ll be safer during the next disaster,” explains Khalid Hassan, a volunteer with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society in Sindh province. “Before the floods, people built their houses on the ground. We are now telling them to build on a base of at least four feet, using six pieces of timber in one wall, instead of the usual three.”

As families struggle to get back on their feet, hunger and malnutrition are real threats, particularly for millions of women and children. Those who lost everything in the floods are saying that what they really need help with is finding ways to generate their own income, so they no longer need depend on aid.

The Federation’s recovery programme, which the British Red Cross is supporting, will give cash grants to around 5,000 families. This will help them start small businesses in farming, tailoring, transportation, handicrafts and grocery shops.

Find out more about how we’re helping people recover from the Pakistan floods.

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Tags: floods, Pakistan, Pakistan Floods Appeal

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