Right from the Communities People’s Views on Disasters and their Reduction Right from the Communities The Research Team Abdul Shakoor Sindhu Author and Research Team Leader Maryam Abid Data Analyst and Field Research Coordinator Moqadas Hanif Research Assistant 1 Page Right from the Communities Table of Contents Page Acknowledgement 3 Section 1 Introduction 4 Section 2 What communities have to face in the face of disasters 6 Section 3 Solutions and demands by the communities 12 Section 4 Reducing the disaster risks- Recommendations by the communities 14 Section 5 Annexures 16 Details of Surveyed Communities and Respondents The Information Collection tool Brief profiles of the surveyed districts 2 Page Right from the Communities Acknowledgement This report is entirely based upon the views of children, women and men who are residing at disaster prone locations in seven districts of Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. We are thankful to all of them for sharing with us the issues they are facing or have to face during disaster situations, and their recommendations to address them as well as to reduce the disaster risks. The views of the communities for this report were collected by RDPI’s field staff in Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Mirpur Khas and Thatta as well as staff of RDPI’s 28 partner organizations in these districts. We are thankful to all of them for volunteering their time, energies and resources for this cause. Last but not least, we are grateful to Ms. Madhavi Malalgoda Aryabandu of UNISDR for her guidance and encouragement throughout the course of this exercise. The Research Team 3 Page Right from the Communities Section 1: Introduction 1.1. Why this report? In the year 2015, two important global initiatives- the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) will be entering into the final year of their stipulated timeframe. From early 2013, the United Nations Development Group and UNISDR have simultaneously initiated a consultative process to come up with the post-2015 development agenda/sustainable development goals following the Rio +20 and a new DRR framework, respectively. The UN Development Group has selected Pakistan as one of the priority countries for the consultation process. Please see annex 5.1 for details. UNISDR has requested all the national governments to consult all stakeholders within their countries for their input to post-2015 DRR framework. In this regard the agency encouraged National Disaster Management Authority Pakistan to organize such consultations at provincial and district levels. Meanwhile UNISDR also encouraged RDPI to capture the main issues and proposal coming directly from the communities living with the disaster risks so that the same could be incorporated in the broader consultation process. This report is a contribution of RDPI towards this end. 1.2. The Inquiry Framework UNISDR suggested three questions to be asked from the community members and groups: 1. What are the three most important problems related to disasters for you/for your community? 2. What are your suggestions to make your situation better to manage disasters affecting you/your community? 3. What would you like to propose/recommend to improve your situation/situation of your community in relation to disasters in the next 10 years? UNISDR also recommended that while putting these question, the respondents should also be briefed about the background of this exercise i.e. that all the countries in the world, including Pakistan, are discussing together how to make the situation related to disaster better for communities in the next 10 years, and this situation is to convey their situation, experience and recommendations for improving their situation to the national and global leaders. For this exercise, a short questionnaire was developed in Urdu (Pakistan’s National Language) containing the three questions, an introduction to the exercise and guidelines for the enumerators. 1.3. Methodology The views of the individuals and the groups have been collected through individual interviews and focus group discussions. The field teams conducted individual interviews with 37 boys and 31 girls (age group 10-23 years) and 57 men and 29 women (age group 24 and above). The FGDs were conducted with 33 groups of boys and 33 groups of girls (age group 10 to 23) and 32 groups of men and 34 groups of women (age group 24 and above); wherein 224 boys, 232 girls, 214 men and 241 women participated. These interviews and FGDs were conducted in 37 villages of seven districts of Sindh and Punjab Provinces. In District Mirpur Khas of Sindh, all the information was collected through individual interviews while in other six districts, interviews and FGDs were organized. In these districts, on average four FGDs were organized in each village with one each with girls, boys, men and women, and one interview with some notable individual. For details please see annex 5.1. The sampled villages were selected, using the convenience sampling technique, from among the most vulnerable villages where RDPI along with its partners is implementing various DRR, relief, early recovery and reconstruction 4 Page Right from the Communities programs. The information was collected by 29 two-member teams (one male and one female enumerator) which collected the information during February and March 2013. 1.4. Structure of the Report Besides this introductory section, there are four sections of the report. In Section 2 the issues/problems in relation to disasters highlighted by the respondents have been given. In Section 3, their suggestions to address these issues have been provided. In Section 4 community members/groups’ recommendations to reduce the disaster risks have been recorded, while Section 5 comprises the annexures. 5 Page Right from the Communities Section 2: What Communities have to face in the face of Disasters? The respondents were asked to briefly describe the three most important problems they were facing or had to face in relation to disasters. The received responses were clubbed under 14 broader categories. Here is a brief description of these: 2.1. Housing Following issues were highlighted by the respondents: - A considerable portion of housing stock in their villages is comprised of houses made of mud or other locally available materials. These houses appear extremely weak whenever a flood, torrential rains and strong winds strike the locality. Rampant poverty and lack of land entitlements restrict the dwellers of these houses to opt for construction of houses strong enough to withstand the disaster shocks. - The destruction of houses in the hands of disasters and the time and resources required for their reconstruction are major issues which households have to suffer from. - The poorer households do not have access to affordable house building finance and appropriate technologies which could enable them to construct permanent and resilient housing structures. - In the aftermaths of cyclone Phet, 2010 (in Thatta), consecutive floods in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (in case of Sindh), 2010 in Punjab and later in 2012 in Rajanpur; government did not honor its commitment for compensating the affected households with sufficient cash to reconstruct their houses and people were left to resort to their limited savings, selling of livestock, and borrowing from local money lenders at exorbitant interest rates etc.; to generate cash for reconstruction of their houses. This situation has made them stand poorer than pre-flood days. - Many households affected by floods, are still unable to reconstruct their houses and are forced to resort on makeshift arrangement for shelters. - During emergency situation, appropriate arrangements were not made to shelter the displaced families. Due to this the affectees had to face many problems, including but not limited to staying in the roadside spontaneous camps erected by affectees themselves, to stay with the relatives etc. This situation has to be faced by the affectees in almost every disaster event. 63% boys and 52% girls (10-23 year of age), and 57% men and 46% women (23 year and above) highlighted housing related issues as the problems they are facing or have to face in the disaster situation. On the whole 79% respondents highlighted housing related problems in connection with disasters. 2.2. Epidemics Epidemics or the spread of diseases in the aftermaths of the disaster situation was highlighted by the respondents, adding that eye ailments, diarrhea and skin diseases spread widely in the monsoon and especially in the flooding period. 30% boys, 34% girls, 25% men and 21% women highlighted epidemics or diseases as one of the major problems. On the whole, 27% respondents highlighted epidemics and diseases as one of their major problems. 2.3. Damage to Crops The respondents mentioned that their crops were one of the most vulnerable assets during the disasters. They added that whenever there were floods, untimely or torrential rains, lack of rains, lack of irrigation water, pest attack, strong winds, heat and cold waves; their crops were affected. They added that normally the crop losses were not compensated by any agency and mechanisms like crop insurance etc. was not available to them. They said that crops were recurrently damaged due to changing or unpredictable weather conditions. They also told that with each crop failure or major damage, their reliance increases further on local money lenders or those providing agricultural input like seed, fertilizers, 6 pesticides etc. on credit. Some respondents also added that with the damage to crops, options for agricultural labor also Page Right from the Communities reduce for the agricultural laborers. 34% boys, 14% girls, 39% men and 20% women respondents counted damage to crops as one of the major problems. As a whole, 27% respondents were found considering this as one of the main problems created by disasters. 2.4. Drinking Water The respondents mentioned that lack of access to clean drinking water was an issue in their daily life, adding the problem became acuter during disaster situation.