Relief Food Assistance to Flood Affectees in Sindh

The devastating flood of 2010 inundated almost 1/5th of Pakistan's land area, approximately 796,095 square kilometres.  About 20 million people were affected by the flood water, their houses submerged, livestock swept away, livelihood vanished. With no shelter people were marooned in flood water with no food, drinking water and health facilities. The flood water after wreaking havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab on its course entered Sindh province. As Sindh is a fertile agricultural land and occupation of the majority of the population of rural Sindh is farming. The flood water overwhelmed 16 districts of Sindh inundating 1.7 million acres of arable land as a result standing crops of sugarcane, cotton and rice were flushed away. To help the hapless people of Sindh in this moment of misery and agony several local and international humanitarian agencies commenced their rescue, relief and early recovery operations.

As the ill-fated people of Sindh had hardly taken a respite and recovered from the sufferings of 2010 flood another disaster struck them severely. The torrential monsoon rain in the month of August, 2011 caused flood in different districts of Sindh acutely affecting Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nawabshah and Badin districts.  Flood caused severe repercussions affecting standing crops of cotton, rice and sugarcane. Communication system was also disrupted by the flood water with bridges and roads swept away making it extremely hard to commute among districts.

Privy to the miseries of the affected population,  immediate rescue, relief and early recovery operations by different humanitarian agencies were mandatory. BEST with the support of World Food Programme (WFP) began registration of the affected population in district Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas and started food distribution on emergency basis.

PROJECT APPROACH AND  IMPLEMENTATION

Catering to the dire needs of the target beneficiaries and appraising the status of a potential beneficiary BEST team adopted a realistic approach for carrying out proposed activities in a swift, efficient and effective manner.

BEST field staff was assigned the task of carrying out assessment of the target UCs. After identification of the target UCs, Food Distribution Committees comprising of local elders were formed in every village to establish coordination with the local community.  While registering potential beneficiaries BEST staff strictly adhered to the beneficiary selection criteria and endeavored to reach the most vulnerable and food insecure families. Duplication in the data during registration was avoided through filtration. After registration, BEST with close coordination of the local administration i.e. DCO and DPO and WFP selected points for distribution of food commodities that are safe and secure and in close proximity to the target beneficiaries. Prior to food distribution, BEST project team held regular meetings with district administration in which detailed distribution plans were shared for providing adequate security arrangements. Security was primarily requested for food transportation and distribution points.  During distribution of food commodities, BEST security guards, crowd controllers, social mobilizer and distribution assistants performed their duties amply to maintain discipline and avoid any mishap.  Being  well aware and extremely sensitive to  the local culture, tradition and social values BEST hired female staff to facilitate female beneficiaries.

BEST maintains a competent and effective Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) section which regularly carried out monitoring visits of the project during food distribution cycle. M&E officers meticulously observed the distribution activities being conducted at different distribution points, identified the gaps in the provision of food commodities and gave their valuable recommendations to project coordinator.