SITUATION ASSESEMENT ON DROUGHT Tharparkar and Umerkot September 2014 Monitoring and Evaluation Section TRDP 1 CONTENTS Executive Summary 02 The objective 04 Methodology 05 Migration 05 Livestock 06 Agriculture 07 Health 08 Households under Debt 09 Food security 10 Community Needs 11 Recommendations 12 Map of Tharparkar drought affected UCs. 14 2 Executive Summary TRDP has worked with the Communities in the drought affected areas since many years in the past and is seen as major organization inspiring the community to pin hope with it. The community expects and looks towards TRDP to bring in intervention both as emergency relief initiative and long term initiative to mitigate the recurring drought affects by providing assistance in creating sustainable economy. Realizing the situation, the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) section and Disaster preparedness and management unit (DPMU) jointly started assessment in the mid of September 2014, generally the time when people’s diminishing hope for good year fades completely and start looking around for livelihoods and for their own survival. Initially on the basis of information collected through rapid assessment on amount of rain falls the union councils were categorized in four types. The sample villages representing high population (averagely 300 households per village) with multicast inhabitants from the severely affected UCs were selected for the survey. The three member enumeration teams of each SMT after complete orientation on questionnaire had the community meetings in 74 villages of Thar during the last two weeks of September. Data punching, compilation analysis tabulation and report writing was handled by the monitoring and Evaluation section at head office Mithi. Survey results obtained on current situation indicate the drought like situation mainly in Chachro and Nangar, and the desert-area UCs of Umerkot district while Diplo and Mithi are comparatively better where recorded varying degree of rains, though erratic and scattered. 4463 households from 59 villages of Tharparkar plowed their land during current year of 2014 and 3719 (84%) got their seed destroyed due to not raining timely. The drought indicator of migration show 1518 (7%) complete families migrated to barrage areas and 4129 or (18%) migrated partially by one male family member for livestock grazing or for agriculture labor. The majority (70%) in complete migration and 58% in partial migration is of three communities of Bheel, Kolhi and Meghwar out of 25 communities from 74 villages. Livestock, the main source of livelihood was the priority area need immediate attention, market price of goat, sheep and cows have reduced up to 30-40%. The 4% of big animals (cows) and 14% of small animals (goats/sheep) were sold and the migration of big livestock ratio stands 15% of total big animals. The community need priority index show demand of fodder and veterinary services at top of all other needs. 182 children deaths under 5 were reported and 4446 children suffered mainly (78%) by diarrhea and fever/malaria. Similar is the case of adults, according to results 3910 adults found suffered by abdomen and fever due to unknown reason. The household economy mostly depend upon the livestock as averagely each household possessed 11 small domestic animals (goats/sheep) and 3 big (mostly cows), the sale of goats and sheep served their cash and immediate needs. According to data out of total 22361 households of 74 villages 15426 (69%) were under the debt. The 35% of debt sources were NGOs or banks, 33% money lenders, 24% shop keepers and 8% had the source of debt was their close relatives. The ratio of money lenders is high where the access of the financial institutions was lacking as the case of Dahalee and Chachro area villages. Besides debt with low capacity of purchasing power, the food security conditions are also bad. Averagely the 17% of the total households told they have food available for next one to 6 months period, only 1% had food secure for one year while the 82% household had either no food secure for next fifteen days even. 50 of the total 74 villages admired government support of wheat they are getting since last couple of months period. None of the village of Umerkot district have got any relief in form of wheat support by the Government. 3 On the basis of the indicators as above at the end when the community was asked about the solutions they want, their response and priorities are tabulated in table below. Priority Area of intervention % 1st Fodder and Vaccination (for livestock) 22% 2nd Health facilities (doctor, medicines and 19% camps) 3nd Food ration 17% 4rd Water (RO plants, dug wells, hand pumps) 14% 5th Education (teachers, schools, girls education) 11% 6th Solar lights 4% 7th Others 12% Total 100% 4 Situation assessment on Drought Tharparkar and Umerkot September 2014 The objectives: The objectives of the assessment were 1. Identify the areas having more drought like situation due to low rain falls. 2. Assess the drought indicators on food security, migration, livestock, agriculture, health, education and water 3. Identify the problems being faced by the affected communities in current situation and know the possible solutions at community ends to mitigate the drought like situation in their area. Process and Methodology- The information was gathered through questionnaire and Focus group discussion (FGDs) in the most drought affected villages, selected according to the low rainfall in the union council. On the basis of the data on rainfall all union councils of Tharparkar and Umerkot (only desert UCS) were categorized into four types; UCs which got very low rains, low, moderate and better on following basis. Very Low: UCs where either there were no rains at all or very low rains Low: UCs where land cultivation/crop plowing was very rare, or if cultivated it remained unbeneficial. Grass for livestock grew at scattered areas which was insufficient, Moderate: UCs where rain was for more than two times, people plowed their fields and currently caring their cultivated lands, grown-grass is currently sufficient for their livestock. Better: UCs where it rained sufficiently and more than three times, people cultivated their lands and expecting good crops. Grass seems good enough for their livestock survival. The UC level information on rainfall was initially collected through visiting villages by the field staff, meetings with community organizations and information collected from district government offices. According to the initial data and information collected on rainfalls, the 44 union councils of Tharparkar and 7 of Umerkot were divided into four categories. The Taluka wise segregation is as under. Very low Low Moderate Better Total Taluka No of Union councils Mithi 4 7 1 12 Diplo 3 4 1 8 Chachro 11 3 3 17 Nagar parker 3 3 1 7 Umerkot 4 2 1 7 18 15 15 3 51 5 Methodology: According to the severity in terms of low rainfalls in UC the 60 villages were selected from Tharparkar and 15 from district Umerkot. The number of villages were in proportionate, taking high number from UCs highly affected ones. Hence 27 villages were taken from Chachro tehsil, 14 from Nagar parker, 12 from Diplo, 8 from Taluka Mithi and similarly the 15 villages from the Tehsil Umerkot. The field team of the concerned field office was given orientation on the questionnaire and on FGD process and methodology. A team of three members including one supervisor at respective field office had the community meetings in the identified villages of the unit area. Maximum participation was ensured through advance information to the village activists, teachers, shopkeepers and women. The information, suggestions and the feedback was obtained through filling a close and open ended questionnaires. The facilitation role was of the supervisor while the two were supportive in taking the notes and filling the forms. The two or three highly populated villages with multi casts dwellers which represent the major part of the union councils in terms of current drought condition were selected from each union council of the area. The feedback on current drought situation in the area was also obtained from the respective local support organization (LSOs) of the area. 1. Migration According to the data collected from 74 villages of Tharparkar and Umerkot 5,647 families have been affected due to migration. Out of total affected families, 1518 i.e. 36.7% are complete migrant families while 4129 households are those who migrated partially with livestock herds for grazing purpose of their livestock to neighboring areas in Thar or for labor for harvesting the agriculture at barrage areas Taluka wise migration Complete No. of Partial HHs planning Taluka Migrated Total Villages Migrated HHS to Migrate HHs Chachro 25 699 2017 2716 661 Dahli 2 50 130 180 60 Diplo 13 199 307 506 350 Mithi 8 157 289 446 130 Nangarparkar 11 213 785 998 309 Umerkot 15 200 601 801 514 Grand Total 74 1518 4129 5647 2024 It is common that the Bheel and Kolhi communities migrate every year during the wheat harvesting season but not in the months of August or September like this year. The 70% of the migrating families belong to Bheel Kolhi and Meghwar communities. At the other side the partial migration is higher of 6 Meghwar 25% than Bheel and Kolhi communities. While the rest of 22 communities ratio of partial migration stood comparatively high at 42%. While having interviews with community representatives during the community conferences it was found that more 2024 families of 22 villages were ready to migrate within next couple of weeks. This trend will increase month by month as they are forced to sell off their animals swiftly due to cash needs, fodder scarcity and diseases/mortality of animals Affected Complete migrating families Partial migrating families Total Families 1518 4129 Bheel community 807 (53%) 855 (21%) Kolhi community 165 (11%) 526 (13%) Meghwar 88 (6%) 1018 (25%) Others 22 458 (30%) 1730 (42%) communities 2.