DFID – Pakistan:

How we respond to major floods in Pakistan

2011 to 2013

What is resilience in this context?

Can we help these people to become resilient to future floods?

2,27

3,72

3

3,75

0,00

0

3,00

0,00

0

4,20

0,00

0

5,60

0,00

0

3,20

0,00

0

Scale and comparisons

Recent FLOODS In Pakistan:

2010: 20m 2011: 8m 2012: 5m

Challenges and priorities

• The problem of design (= vulnerability)

• Social fabric strong (happy people)

• Pre-existing poverty

• Do no Harm!

• Build on lessons from 2010, etc.

• Livelihoods: deeper into debt. What to do?

• Deal with emergency first

Often destruction starts from the roof-down

Both katcha (mud) and pukka (brick) houses collapsed These were built with international donor funds, and will all have to be taken down and rebuilt.

Large tent, £130 - £180 range. Limited adaptability – can’t be used to reconstruct the home.

And expensive!

An overview of “conventional” response

£18 / Unit

Cheap but not very good (not much protection and dignity)

Cheaper tent (£100)

Pretty useless though…

In contrast – a DFID / IOM designed family shelter

£60 / family – including a solar light

Whole families: better protection, enhanced dignity

The “Roofing Kit” idea

• £58 per unit

• Used as temporary shelter

• Later to build a roof

• Double the value of a tent

• And half the price

Roofing kit as seen from outside

Double value kit = good VfM

Hasheema is home and dry

Keila, mother of four, built walls by herself Says “this is so much better than a tent”

Mustafa, project manager for HANDS, discussing options to further reinforce the walls so this house will be more flood resistant.

Overall Results Emergency shelter:

• 300,000 people reached

• (45,000 families)

• At cost of £3.4m

• or £11 per person.

Solar lights

OK but what does it mean? Research: Protection for women? Economic savings? Potential for small businesses? Ref. Grameen Shahkti - Bangladesh

Next phase:

Flood Resistant Shelters

Criteria:

• Low cost – replicable

• Respect local vernacular

• Must be flood resistant

Design improvement # 1:

• Extended roof eaves

Thick walls with LIME

Lime is the key

• Flood resistant for 5,000 years

• Good local production

• Cheap

• Sukkur Barrage & Rome

– as evidence

• Leading experts as advisors

Hydraulic lime goes hard underwater. So let’s use it in the foundations and walls!

People build their own homes: bring training to them

Raise the level of the house

Keep what works well

Offer training on range of different designs

Engage whole communities:

• CBOs • Conditional cash transfers • The ability to listen

Before and after

If we do nothing – what really happens?

Key results – durable shelters

• 45,000 families (c.300,000 people) in durable homes

• £11m invested

• Equals £260 per family (all costs)

• Compares with £3,500 per family in Aceh

• Or £1,800 per family Punjab / Sindh Govt.

Livelihoods:

41,000 families helped to

avoid debt for wheat crop

87,000 families are helped

to start kitchen gardens

WHAT IMPACT?

Household economy

Cash helped

But cash can’t build

resilience

80 to 100% spend on

FOOD

Huge food price

increases!

“We don’t grow our own

vegetables”

“Of course we’d like to

learn”

Kitchen gardens – introducing for the first time, focusing on women.

The rationale for “joined-up programmes” – Shelter, WASH, Livelihoods – to build resilience

What next?

• Bring the Government on board

• Research and building evidence – 2010 to now

• Engage academia

• Validate the best strategy (VfM, technical)

• Link into the broader resilience strategy

• Innovate, test, research, validate

Poorly designed

overflow from septic

tanks

A common sight all over

Pakistan

A serious public health

problem has been

created, not resolved.

This series of pictures portrays normal village life in many villages in Pakistan and how, with community mobilisation and low-cost, appropriate design, the transformation that could be achieved. This need cost no more than conventional WASH and early recovery projects.

Slide 1: A normal village in Sindh: little shade in the extreme heat, no kitchen gardens, high malnutrition, poor health and hygiene, deforestation, denuded environment, etc.

Residual water from hand-pump

lying stagnant

Overflow from septic tanks creating disease

With lack of fodder, goats roam free and eat

emerging trees and plants

Slide 2: Hand-pump residual water directed to sunken “sponge” gardens, planted with bananas or other species; septic tanks linked to constructed wetlands; key tree species planted, rainwater collection initiated.

Slide 3: Goats enclosed and controlled. Sunken beds below hand-pumps planted. Kitchen gardens have started; constructed wetland for septic tank operational; specific native trees planted around the compound, including mango / other fruits, neem and moringa species for multiple nutritional and health benefits.

Concept: DFID Illustration and artwork: UNHABITAT

3 to 5 years on, Moringa trees providing fodder for animals,

increasing milk production by up to 50% and weight gain < 35% While providing multiple nutritional and health benefits for people

Kitchen gardens saving 30 – 50% people’s income on food while improving nutrition

Constructed wetland system provides complete treatment for sewage waste while providing habitat for bamboo and other useful species

Increased shade, wind and flood protection, better hygiene, sanitation and nutrition, household income boosted. Overall resilience enhanced.