Flood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report · PDF fileFlood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report ... This document discusses all the activities

1

Flood relief and rehabilitation

interventions: progress report COMSATS Institute of Information Technology,

Abbottabad Campus

Organized by:

in collaboration with:

Flood relief campaign, CIIT Abbotabad

Index of Content

1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION .................................................................. 5

2 FUND RAISING AND DISBURSEMENT ...................................................................................... 6

2.1 Fund Raising .................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Fund Disbursement .......................................................................................................... 6

3 RELIEF ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................ 7

3.1 Distribution of food items in remote areas of charsadda ................................................. 7

3.2 Cash for Work in Rajjar ( District Charsadda) ................................................................. 9

3.3 Distribution of Agricultural Inputs, Blankets,Clothes and School Bags (Ambadeer) ... 10

3.4 Distribution of food items in remote areas of kohistan .................................................. 11 3.5 Medical Camp in collaboration with Ayub teaching hospital at nowshehra.................. 12

4 ON-GOING REHABILITATION INTERVENTIONS ................................................................... 15

4.1 Adopting a village .......................................................................................................... 16

4.2 Financing education of flood affected students.............................................................. 17


Flood relief and rehabilitation: core team

Professor Dr. Khan Gul Jadoon

Director, COMSATS Institute of Information

Technology, Abbottabad (CIIT) [email protected]

Dr. Bahadar Nawab

Head of Development Studies Department

CIIT, Abbottabad [email protected]

Mr. Naveed Jan

Incharge Career Development Center


Dr. Sajjad A. Madani

Head of Computer Science Department,



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The recent floods in Pakistan have washed away most of the achievements of the past 60 years.

The houses, agricultural fields, live stock, and the very fabric of our society have been shattered

by these floods.

COMSATS Institute of Information technology Abbottabad responded well in time to this

national crisis and on the third day of the floods, a team of volunteers from the faculty gathered

and devised a flood relief campaign.

CIIT Abbottabad with partner universities including, Vienna University of Technology, Austria,

and Norwegian University of life sciences, Norway raised PKR 5.3 million for flood victims

within short span of time.

After achieving short term goals, CIIT Abbottabad is already working on medium/long term

goals. The idea is to work on concepts like “adopt a student”, “adopt a family”, and “adopt a

village”.

This document discusses all the activities that are already executed by CIIT Abbotabad and also

gives some glimpses of the road ahead.


1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July after heavy monsoon rains affected the Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, lower Punjab as well as parts of Balochistan. It is estimated that two thousand

people along with close to a million homes have

perished so far. The United Nations estimates

over 20 million people are suffering and

homeless with over 160,000 square

kilometres affected as a result of the

flooding, exceeding the combined total of the

affected of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the

2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti

earthquake. However, the death toll in each of

those three disasters was much higher than the

number of people killed so far in the floods.

Around a fifth of Pakistan's total land area was

underwater due to the flooding.

The U.N. is concerned that aid is not arriving fast enough,

while the World Health Organization reported that ten

million people were forced to drink unsafe

water. The Pakistani economy has been harmed by

extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. Structural

damages are estimated to exceed 4 billion USD,

and wheat crop damages are estimated to be over 500

million USD. Total economic impacts are estimated at

about 43 billion USD according to official estimates.

Flood has caused damage in all 24 districts of KP

Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk from deadly water-borne

diseases in Pakistan

Diarrhoeal incidence: D I Khan 42%, Tank 29%,Swat 25%,

Charsadda 23% and Nowshera 18%


COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Abbottabad, along with its academic activities also

strongly emphasises on social work, especially at the time of any natural disaster or calamity. During the

2005 earthquake COMSATS actively participated in different relief activities such as fundraising,

development of database for registration of affected people, voluntary work at medical camps, hospitals

and food distribution points etc.

During the Sawat Conflict, COMSATS Abbottabad, played its role by collecting funds for IDP’s and by

sponsoring students of the affected area studying at the Institute.

Keeping the tradition, CIIT Abbottabad, has established COMSATS Flood Relief and Rehabilitation

Committee keeping in view the current disaster scenario and is actively working on the agenda to provide

relief and to rehabilitate the affected people.

2 FUND RAISING AND DISBURSEMENT

COMSATS Abbottabad being academic and research institute always take lead in fulfilling its social

responsibilities. The active involvement in the emergency, relief and rehabilitation activities of the

earthquake (2005), the Swat IDPs (2008) and recent devastating flood (2010) are just few examples.

2.1 FUND RAISING

During the 2010 flood, the student, faculty and staff of COMSATS Abbottabad started fund raising

campaign. The campaign was first limited to campus, however, keeping in mind the nature of devastation

the students and faculty went out of the campus to city and towns for door-to door collection. The faculty

also contacted partners’ institutions abroad. Vienna University of Technology and Norwegian University

of Life Sciences, Norway are worth mentioning where the students and faculty collected and send an

amount of PKR 1.8 million and 1.2 million respectively to the COMSATS Abbottabad relief and

rehabilitation funds. Following is the total fund raised so far.

S. No Fund Source Amount (PKR Million)

1 COMSATS student, faculty and staff 2.3

2 University of Vienna Austria (faculty, staff and

student)

1.8

3 Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)

Norway (students, faculty and staff)

1.2

Total 5.3

2.2 FUND DISBURSEMENT

COMSATS Abbottabad has constituted flood relief and rehabilitation committee who is making the

decisions of funds allocation and disbursement. The committee is headed by the campus director and all

heads of departments and students representatives are members of the committee. It is worth mentioning

that money collecting from COMSATS campus as well as from partners’ institutions in abroad is not used


in any kind of administrative, transport or other cost. All such costs are covered by the COMSATS

Abbottabad.

3 RELIEF ACTIVITIES

From the above mentioned funds, the following relief activities has undertaken so far

S. No Relief activities Values of relief

activities in PKR (in

millions)

1 Food ration, cooked food distributed amongst

affectees in district Charsadda [2 times]

0.25 x 2 = 0.5

2 Clothes, shoes and other household items

distributed amongst affectees in district

Charsadda [2 times]

0.15 x 2 = 0.30

3 Established medical camp in district Nowshehra

and distribution of free medicine in the affected

population

0.10

4 Food and clothes distributed in district

Nowshehra [2 times]

0.20 x 2 = 0.40

5 Food ration distributed in district Kohistan

(Dubair) [2 times]

0.30 x 2 = 0.6

6 Established medical camps and distributed free

medicine in district Kohistan (Pattan)

0.20

7. Distribution of Construction Equipment , Shelter

and Cash for work (30 Families,

Rajjar,Charsadda)

0.45

8. Distribution of Fertilizer,seed ,Clothes and

School Bags(100 Families,Ambadeer,

Charsadda)

0.20

9. Financing flood affected students 1.0

10. Adopt a village Under progress

Total Rs. 3.75 ( Million)

3.1 DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD ITEMS IN REMOTE AREAS OF CHARSADDA

To reach the affected population, on August 1, 2010, a team of COMSATS Abbottabad’s students and

faculty went to DOABA and Charsadda. There we distributed 200 packs of two weeks Rashan (5 kg

rice, 3 kg Daal, 2 kg sugar, I kg Ghee, ½ kg dates, ¼ kg tea and salt) in 200 households. Besides this, the

team was able to distribute 10 “Daigs” of rice in three villages and two camps. Other then the food items

around 60 especial packs of female clothes and other personal used materials prepared by our four

females students were also distributed among the female in the camp.


We tried our best to reach the most affected and not easily accessible population, which of course involve

some degree of risk, however, while taking part in rescue and relief operation and trying to help

contribute save lives one has to accept some risk. We thanks Almighty Allah that everything went very

well.

Just to share with you that in Charsadda we found university students, welfare societies, philanthrops,

I/NGO from across the country but they need more

The needs and requirement is huge in Charsadda, Nowshera, Swat, Kohistan and AJK and we need to

continue our fund raising and onward distribution campaign at whatever level we can. Right now we are

exploring the possibilities of reaching Kohistan where some people are badly in need. We are in touch

with some local organizations and as soon as we hear about the clearance of route to Kohistan (Dasu) we

shall try our best to reach there.


The second visit to the same area was carried out on October 01, 2010. The same items were distributed

among the identified persons.

3.2 CASH FOR WORK IN RAJJAR ( DISTRICT CHARSADDA)

A revolutionary idea of “Cash for work” was introduced in Village Rajjar( Distt: Charsadda). Under this

program, 30 families were selected . these families taken shelter in Government run schools and they

were facing a threat of vacating the schools due to the opening of schools after summer vacation. These

30 families were convinced to erect tents over the demolished homes and start construction. The families

were provided construction equipments, tents and 15 days wages for labor. In fact the male members of

these families worked themselves and we provided them daily wages. This idea was so good that in a

period of two months, those families were able to shift back and the idea was adopted by all the NGO;s

working in district Charsadda. This project cost us Rs.450,000.


3.3 DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL INPUTS, BLANKETS,CLOTHES AND SCHOOL BAGS

(AMBADEER)

Under this project, 104 bags of seed and Urea was distributed among 100 farmers of Village

ambadeer( District Charsadda). Besides 70 blankets ,winter clothes and school bags were

distributed in this village. This village in located on river bank and the agricultural lands have

been converted into barren rocks. This intervention helped the farmers to rehabilitate their

livelihood.


3.4 DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD ITEMS IN REMOTE AREAS OF KOHISTAN

The CIIT Abbottabad rescue and relief operation is continued. This time a team of CIIT Abbottabad

faculty and students went to Kohistan (Dubair) on Friday, August 13, 2010 and distributed food items in

200 affected household. Right now there is less than 200 household in Dubair proper but affected people

from upper Kohistan also come there for seeking food and other consumables. The food packet of CIIT

Abbottabad include (Basmati rice: 5 kg; Wheat flour: 5 kg; Daal: 2 kg; Oil: 1 kg; Sugar: 2 kg; Tea: ¼ kg;

Dates: 1 kg; Dry milk (everyday): ½ kg; Soap: 2; and Salt: 1 pack). Each packet cost Rs. 1405.

Dubair is a small town on Karakuram Highway between Besham and Dasu. More than half of the village

houses and shops are completely washed out by Dubair Nullah. Five people also died in the village due to

flood water. Some of the homeless people have now shifted to Besham and other nearby villages,

however, the male members of the household do visit Dubair for different reasons. The road connection


of down country with Gilgit-Baltistan and China is cut off at this place and the only food supply to upper

Kohistan is through army helicopter and to some extent by a trolley cable built over the Nullah.

Second visit to the same area was carried out on October 12, 2010 where similar packets of selected items

and quantity was distributed among the selected and identified families in the affected area.

3.5 MEDICAL CAMP IN COLLABORATION WITH AYUB TEACHING HOSPITAL AT NOWSHEHRA

A relief camp was established on Saturday (August 28th, 2010) in the flood affected area (Pashtoon Garhi)

of District Nowshera.

This village has 3500-4000 households in five Mohallas i.e. Kandi Payan, Kandi Bala, Rahim Abad, Ajab

Bagh and Shaheed Abad). The village is situated on the right bank of the Kabul River…hardly 600-700

meters away from the river. During flood the water first enter in the village early in the morning and by

4:00 PM the water level reach to 5 feet and people started vacating the village. By night time the water

level reached to 19 feet on the river side of the village (Pandi Payan) and 8 feet on the highest point of the

village. This level of water was maintained for more than 50 hours. The water level went down after few

days, however, this complete and in some places partial inundation of the village resulted into death of 8

people, the same number is still missing and around 3000 big animals (buffalo and cows) died. The entire

goat, sheap, chickens died in the village including 40 poultry farms. The number of human death would

have far more if the army helicopters would have not rescued them from the top of the village Mosque

which is located at some height and where the water level was 8 feet. Around 450 mud houses have

completely demolished leaving all the consumables and assets under the debris and many more Pakka


houses are cracked and some are about collapse. Since this was a farming community whose main source

of livelihood was agriculture and livestock therefore, the standing crops, livestock and stored grains have

all destroyed. Not only that but the dead animals, fermented wheat grains under the debris and the fungus

inside the rooms are emitting such a foul smell and attracted so many flies that it is almost impossible at

least for new comers and outsiders to stay there for few moments. As a result the disease ratio is very high

and is expected to rise more with each passing day. All the wells have been filled with mud and this direct

intrusion of river water to the groundwater have contaminated the shallow drinking water. The drainage

system is totally dismantled, toilet to pit piped are blocked and soakage pits have collapsed…meaning

that water supply and sanitation system is no more working and the village community is dependent on

water if it is supply by some philantrops/NGO however, its quality is much more questionable.

After a lapse of more then one month the village is still giving a deserted look…only about 10% of the

population is back, the rest are still in the camps or with relatives. However, most of them come in the

morning…some are removing the mud from inside the rooms and others are searching for small assets

and consumables and are washings whatever is possible for reuse.

Inspite of all these damages no government or private organization was able to reach the worst affected

Kandi Payan of Pashtoon Garhi and when we the first reached there, the poor local community was

therefore extremely grateful to COMSATS Abbottabad.

In the village we did the following interventions:

Free Medical Camp:

A free medical camp was established in the village for which announcement through loudspeakers in the

village was made one day before and once we were there. A group of seven senior, five junior and four

medical students’ (altogether 16) volunteers from Ayub Medical College accompanied us. COMSATS

Abbottabad is extremely grateful to all those volunteers’ medical officers. The medical doctors were

specialized in the field of:

1. Gyne

2. Medicine

3. Surgery

4. Peads

5. Dermatology

6. ENT

7. Eyes


The doctors checked 300 registered patients (majority of them were women and children) and we provide

free medicine to all of them. The major diseases in the village were:

1. Scabies

2. Disease of Gastro-intestinal tract

3. Viral Conjunctivitis (eye)

4. Wounds and superficial injuries

5. Depression

Distribution of clothes, shoes and food

Packets of female, male and children clothes along with shoes were distributed in more than 200 poor

household. A list of most deserving households was prepared with the help of local activist before the


visit. Priority was given to widows and female headed household. A food rashan was also distributed but

only among the widows in the village

A cash amount in the poorest windows and females and few poor male was also distributed in the village.

Cash distribution was not the policy of COMSATS Abbottabad so far, however, this money was from

some faculty and those in the field who don’t want to be mention.

On the way back another village (Behram Khel) in Nowshera Kalan but on the other side of the Kabul

River was visited. The story of human and animal loss and damages to property and assets were even

worst then Pashtoon Garhi in this village. The same items were distributed around 150 households in this

village but due to lack of time we could not establish medical camp there.

Research survey in the village

We conducted research survey in Pashtoon Garhi. During the survey the focus was on understanding the

wealth ranking, livelihoods, drainage, sanitation and water supply systems, and damages in the village.

The objective of the research survey was to look into the possibility of long term research and

development intervention in the village. We were also interesting to explore the possibility of COMSATS

medium and long term engagement in the village in terms of COMSATS proposed three packages of:

Adopt a student

Adopt a family

Adopt a village

We used survey, individual interview (both female and male), focus group discussion (two female two

male group) and transect walk for collecting the data

At the end the COMSATS Abbottabad need your continuous financial and moral support and request you

to please give a serious through in adopting any or a mix of the above package.

The Committee greatly appreciates the great support of the administration and all volunteers and wish that

we continue our relief and rehabilitation interventions

4 ON-GOING REHABILITATION INTERVENTIONS

Being academic and research institute COMSATS Abbottabad wanted that education and research be

embedded in the rehabilitation interventions. This is a different approach from NGOs and government

where the affected people are considered mere recipient of aid and are not much concerned about its

impacts and aftermath. Contrary to the NGOs and government approach, we try to find the research and

educational aspects in rehabilitation work. Right now COMSATS Abbottabad has started the following

two rehabilitation programs:


4.1 ADOPTING A VILLAGE

During emergency and relief interventions, the students and faculty also conducted need assessment

survey of badly affected and selected areas in the four districts i.e. Charsadda, Nowshehra, Kohistan and

Swat. Based on the survey, initially one village (Mumtaz Abad) in district Charsadda has been selected

and adopted.

About the village:

This village consists of 39 households. Except three cemented houses which are heavily damaged, all

other houses were totally collapsed. All these households are now living in the tents on the rabbles of the

damaged houses. This is poor and landless, daily wager and farming community. There is extremely low

literacy, the highly qualified person in the village has 12th grade education. Open well are the common

source of drinking water and open defecation was a norm before flood. The shallow water is now heavily

contaminated by direct intrusion of flood water and open defecation is still in the village. There is no

school or health facility in the village and the very few school going girls and boys have to walk for at

least two kilometer to reach the schools.

The flood damages the life, livelihood and property of the village community. Skin, gastroenteritis, minor

injury and psychological disorder are the common diseases in the village. The village community is

disappointed from the relief and rehabilitation activities of the government and NGOs. The interventions

were both little and less relevant and not as per the needs and expectations of the village community.

The following interventions are underway in the adopted village:

1. Comprehensive need assessment survey: The survey was carried out with our partners from

Norwegian University. The village was selected for rehabilitation. A detailed survey of the

physical infrastructure required in the village is underway, and once completed, work in the area

will be started with more action on ground.

2. Identified needs and priorities of the community

3. Understanding people perceptions about relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction and their coping

strategy to deal with the aftermath of the flood disaster and revival of their livelihood

4. Selected the more affected, needy and poorest household in the village

5. Cash-for-work to selected family to construct shelter of at least one room for themselves.

Maximum PKR 30000/- per family is targeted. The family will work to construct their own home.

Construction material will also be provided free of cost to the family as well as by working

him/her self, the head of the family member will have his/her house constructed and will have a

job as well.

6. Distribution of four blankets (the number may vary depending upon the size of the family) in the

affected and poorest households


7. Development of cost-effective water filtration plant for provision of clean and safe water to the

community (This is one of the very serious issues in the flood affected areas nowadays. All the

water wells are filled with contaminated flood water and the availability of clean drinking water

has become a privilege nowadays). We at COMSATS have already developed a low cost water

filter which will be provided to each of the families with basic training of how to replace the

contents of the filter after a specified amount of time.

8. Planning, designing and developing low-cost, culturally acceptable and environment friendly

toilet and sanitation systems in the village

9. Hygiene promotion and awareness raising in the village community

10. Education and literacy boost in the village. This is one of the most important aspects and a lot

is planned in this regard. As a first step, funds will be arranged for the construction of a primary

school so that kids of up-to 8 years of age do not have to travel atleast 2 kilometers one-way to

reach the school. The school will be provided with all the basic stuff including some books for a

small library and few old computers.

4.2 FINANCING EDUCATION OF FLOOD AFFECTED STUDENTS

Many families in the flood areas are not able to pay the educational fee of their children. To continue the

educations of the poor and affected students, COMSATS allocated PKR one million that are directly paid

to the concern institutions. Many of the COMSATS students are from the affected areas who also request

for fee wave-off. The list of effected students are long, however, 350 students are short listed out of which

the top 50 most affected and poor students will be helped out by submitting their tuition fee of PKR

10,000. The list of 50 students selected for financial relief is given below.

S.

No NAME FATHER NAME REGISTRATION NO DOMICILE

1 AMIN UR RASHEED HAROON UR RASHEED FA07-BEC-012 SWAT

2 MEHRAN KHAN ABDUL LATIF FA10-BEE-019 SWAT

3 IFTIKHAR ALI AFREEN KHAN SP08-BEE-186 SWAT

4 ISMAIL KHAN SAJAD SALEEM SP09-BTN-028 NOWSHERA

5 HAROON UR RASHEED MIAN AZIZ UDDIN FA09-ERS-106 MALAKAND

6 JAN ALAM ADUL REHMAN NASIR FA10-PHM-035 KOHISTAN

7 S. ASHFAQ AHMAD S. AHMAD SHAH SP08-BEE-019 SWAT

8 KHAWAR ABBAS

BLOCH

GHAZANFAR ABBAS

KHAN FA06-BCS-044 JHANG PUNJAB

9 HAFIZ M. NAVEED

WAQAS NIAZ AHMAD SIDDAQI FA07-BCS-038 D.G KHAN

10 RAHAT ALI AZIZ KHAN FA07-BBA-071 NOWSHERA

11 S. SHUJAAT ALI M. SEHRAB MIAN FA07-BCE-019 SWAT

12 SHAHZAD ALI REHMAN ULLAH FA07-BEE-013 CHARASADA

13 HAROON ALI KHAN SHAUKAT ALI KAHN FA07-BEE-057 D.G KHAN


14 S. MURTAZA SHAH M. S. SHAH FA07-EPE-030 SWAT

15

RAO M. ASKAM

RAO ARIF JAMIL

KHAN FA08-BCE-050 MUZFAR GARH

16 NAZIM KHAN QASIM KHAN FA08-BEE-046 NOWSHERA

17 M. IRFAN ABDUL KARIM FA08-BEE-087 KOTADDU

18 FAWAD AHMAD MUTAUUAKIL FA08-BEE-106 MALAKAND

19

M. ALI.MUNIR

MALIK.MUNIR

AHMAD FA08-BEE-113 KOTADDU

20 SHAH FAISAL DILAWAR KHAN FA08-BTN-051 SHANGALA

21 NOMAN KHAN M.YAQOOB FA08-EPE-012 CHARASADA

22 EHTSHAM SAGHEER SAGHEER AHMAD FA08-EPE-069 KOTADDU

23 MAHRUKH AJMAL

PARACHA M. AJMAL PARACHA FA08-PHM-065 NOWSHERA

24 MUHAMMAD SOHAIL

ASHRAF M. ASHRAF FA09-BCE-033 PESHAWAR

25

SAAD

MIANMAQBOOL

AHMAD FA09-BEE-004 BATKHELA

26 WAQAS AMIN SAFDAR KHAN FA09-BEE-031 MARDAN

27

RAFIQ ULLAH LKHAN

SHARAFAT ULLAH

KHAN FA09-BEE-035 CHARSADA

28 SAHIB ZADA RAHIL

KHAN INAYAR UR REHMAM FA09-BTN-060 NOWSHERA

29 MOHSIN KHAN MUZAFAR KHAN FA09-EPE-005 CHARSADA

30 OSAMA ABDUL HAFEEZ FA09-EPE-015 SWABI

31 JIBRAN ALI LIAQAT ALI KHAN FA09-ERS-022 SWAT

32 MUDASSIR RASOOL

WASIF GHULAM RASOOL FA08-EPE-065 KOTADDU

33 SHAHID KHAN TAHIR KHAN FA10-MBO-017 SWAT

34

ABDUL NASIR

SHEHZAD MAQBOOL

UL REHMAN SP10-MBA-037 AJK

35 SHAKEEL AHMAD SHAH RAWAN SP07-BEE-013 SWAT

36 ABDUL RAUF

QAISRANI

HAEEZ ULLAH

QAISRANI SP08-BCE-059 TAUNSA

37 M. UZAIR M. SHAREEF SP08-BCS-001 KOTADDU

38 ATTA ULLAH KHAN SP08-BEE-006 SWAT

39 ATTA ULLAH HUSSAIN GUL SP08-BEE-049 SWAT

40 ZIAUDDIN KHAN M. KHAN SP08-BEE-124 SWAT

41 IBRAHIM KHAN NIAMAT ULLAH SP08-BEE-144 NOWSHERA

42 M. ALYAS KHAN MUHAMMAD SP08-BEE-154 D.G KHAN

43 M. KHUSHAL M. RAFIQ SP08-BTN-048 CHARASADA

44 AIMAN SHAKEEL SHAKEEL AHMAD SP08-BTN-052 CHARASADA

45 ADIL SHAH S.MUJAHID SHAH SP08-EPE-068 CHARSADA

46 AMAN ULLAH SP08-EPE-069 CHARASADA

47 AHMAD ULLAH JAN SAAD ULLAH KHAN SP08-EPE-080 CHARASADA

48 M. ARSLAN SHAH M. MERBHAN SHAH SP08-EPE-115 NOWSHERA

49 WAQAS ANWAR M. ANWAR SP09-BBA-030 NOWSHERA

50 M.MOOVIA M. ABDULA MUJAHID SP09-BCE-035 D.G KHAN

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Flood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report · PDF fileFlood relief and rehabilitation interventions: progress report ... This document discusses all the activities