REBUILDING LIVES
It was a warm August morning. The journey from Islamabad to Mardan, about 200 kms. was smooth thanks to the well constructed motorway. Traffic flow was smooth. Passing through some villages and towns, life seemed to be normal as people seemed to get along with the normal routines of life as would be expected in any part of the world. Unless one was told, one could not make out that we had entered the province of Khyber Pukthunkwa, one of the provinces that has been affected by violence in the recent past.
We reached the office of IRSP, one of our partners, who played was involved in emergency relief after the devastating floods of 2010. WaterAid had supported IRSP with the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) component. It had been about a year since the floods had hit various parts of Pakistan. After a brief discussion on the organization and their programmes, we proceeded to Nowshera district, getting on the famed Grand Trunk road (that starts in Afghanistan, cuts across northern Pakistan and goes all the way to Kolkata in eastern India). Soon after passing the town of Pabbi, we left the main road to get into the dusty rural roads, with lush green fields on either side, thanks to the rains. We were heading towards Amankot, a village ravaged by the floods.
“The water came up till here” said the young man we met outside the mosque, pointing out to a slab high above the main entrance to the mosque. It must have been about 8 feet high. Looking around the village, that seemed unbelievable. It was quite dry even though heavy rains had lashed the cities of Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore the previous day. The crops looked green and healthy. Brick and mud houses looked as if they had been there for several years. The village streets seemed quite typical with children (mostly boys) playing on a quiet Wednesday afternoon in the holy month of Ramadan. “Yes, it is true”, said one of the village elders. “When the flood waters entered the village, most of the people came to the mosque because it was on higher ground. It also had a terrace. But with the flood waters entering the mosque, people had to move to the terrace or onto the verandah of the mosque to save themselves.
Amankot is a large village with about 1,400 households and population of about 8,000 people. The floods in 2010 had caught them unawares. They had never witnessed anything like this before as the area was never considered to be flood prone. But the continuous and heavy rains of 2010 caused the river Kabul to swell and flooding the entire region. Fortunately, many lives were saved as people moved to safer places. Only one death was reported. However, the people lost everything else. All the houses were destroyed and many cattle were swept away. From a village that did reasonably well for itself, it became an impoverished, vulnerable village overnight.
“The borehole in the mosque was the only source of water. But because of the flood waters, the quality of water deteriorated. The electric pump that pumped out the water into a tank stopped functioning”, said Saif, the Project Manager from IRSP. “So while the emergency measures required us to get water tankers and ensure that they were adequately clean, we did two things. First, we checked the water quality and then had it treated before consumption so that people do not fall in. Second, we also installed a hand pump so that even without electricity, people could still collect water”.
“Our most important contribution in the emergency work, in addition to providing emergency water supplies and temporary toilets, was providing menstrual hygiene kits”, said Syed Shah Naseer, the Chief Executive of IRSP. “Women suffer in silence as it is a matter of social taboo. Through our female staff, we could directly work with women at the community level and address one of the most pressing, yet silent needs of women and adolescent girls”, he said and added, “ we are the first to do this in our region “.
We were then taken to a communal building a little distance away from the mosque for a discussion. The audience consisted only of men – without any women in our team, it was difficult to interact with the local women, given the strict social customs. It was clear that the trauma of the floods and the long, arduous route to recovery had a lasting impact on people. There were constantly reminded of the flood with the discoloured wall inside the building which clearly showed water levels of about 12 feet all along – something that ensured that people would not forget what they witnessed a year ago.
“Our village was destroyed beyond recognition”, said Rahim, a youth from the village who played a key role in the emergency response work. The only thing that was visible at some places was the head of the hand pumps if they were on land that was high enough above the water levels”.
One of the key contributions of IRSP that has stayed with the people, very interestingly, is hygiene promotion. “We are now much more aware of the need for hand washing and personal hygiene” said one of the elderly gentlemen. Pointing out to a male school teacher, he said “We now ensure that hygiene messages are regularly provided in the schools so that children make it a habit”.
On being asked what the situation was now, they pointed to a number of rehabilitation work that had been done by IRSP and a couple of other external organizations. IRSP had focused on water, sanitation and hygiene. Other organizations had helped with providing temporary shelter and rebuilding lanes within the community. And while they worked hand in hand with these external agencies, they are most proud of having reconstructed their houses almost entirely through self-help, brick by brick, and a very tangible evidence of their attempt to rebuild their lives with
dignity and pride.
