DEC: Pakistan floods set new boundaries
Updated on 18 August 2010
As the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) raises £19m for Pakistan following the country's worst ever floods, the committee's deputy chief executive tells Channel 4 News the floods have rewritten the boundaries of catastrophes.
The DEC, which raises funds independently of the UN, today announced that its appeal has raised £19m for the initial relief programme in Pakistan, with member agency relief efforts so far reaching over 700,000 people.
DEC Chief Executive Brendan Gormley said: "The generosity of public's response to this disaster has continued to build, despite the mood of financial uncertainty and strain currently gripping the country.
"But the fact is, more than two weeks after the floods began, conditions are still worsening in Pakistan. Flood waters are continuing to swell and spread to more villages, more rain is expected and the threat of deadly disease outbreaks looms large. We are still very much dealing with an emergency situation."
Speaking to Channel 4 News, DEC Deputy Chief Executive Kath Hindley said that catastrophes can never again be judged by death toll - the Pakistan floods have set new boundaries.
She said: "We've benefitted, I think, by the disaster risk reduction system. This is one of the things that has happened over the past five or so years, whereby countries affected by issues like flooding have worked together with aid agencies and the UN. We've found ways of getting people out of harms way so if there is notification of floods coming, we can make sure some people get to high ground.
"In this case it seems to have worked to an extent because so few people died. But that has, of course left us with more survivors who now are left homeless. Now we can't judge natural disasters like we used to by number of deaths, its about how we help millions of survivors."
Distributing the DEC donations
Ms Hindley told Channel 4 News that the £19m donations already made are being spent on the "basics of human life".
She said: "Because 20 million people are affected we are spending the donated money on the basics of human life. Getting clean water to places, supplying water purification tablets to help rehydrate people and prevent water-borne diseases like cholera taking hold. We're supplying medical support and field clinics and of course food and basic cooking tools to allow the survivors to cook that food.
"We've managed to reach 700,000 people in all four major regions: Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. In some cases we have to use boats and donkeys to get to the difficult places, as in the early stages of the floods many bridges and roads were washed away, particularly in the mountainous regions.
"The good thing for us was that most of our member agencies were already working in the area when the floods hit, so many had kit in the area or locally. One of the things we've learned over the years is that it's cheaper to buy in-country, rather than buying aid and supplies in the UK and shipping over, so we're already using the money to buy much needed aid in Pakistan that aren't affected.
"The donations from the UK public has been great. We've had on average £40-50 donations and our total has been edging up by around £1m a day. Money will and is getting through and it will continue in helping these very poor people who are now homeless."
Long-term DEC mission
Once the initial phase of relief has finished, the member agencies will be in the region for a long time to come.
Ms Hindley said once the floods have subsided the DEC will be able to assess the damage done and will need to make long term commitments to these people to help them get their livelyhood's back.
"Once the initial phase of the relief effort is complete and the floods subside we will begin work to get children back to school and getting an education, because this is very important in the long term. We will help adults with their livelyhoods and this is key - we need to help them replant their crops so they're ready for harvest next year," Ms Hindley said. "We need to help them get back to business and getting the economy up and running again. Overall we need to help them get some semblance of normality and take back control of their own lives," she added.
A field worker from Cafod, one of the agencies working under the DEC appeal, sent a blog to Channel 4 News about teenager Sher Ali's new life in Pakistan since the floods struck:
The flooding in Pakistan has left Sher Ali’s family homeless and displaced.
Sher Ali, son of Bahramand, is a tall and slender young man. At 14-years-old he’s the sole provider to a family of nine.
“A year ago, my father had an accident and died. He used to provide everything for our family and now I must provide for my family. After his death I had to drop out of school and find a job.”
Just one year on and the Bahramand family is struck by tragedy again: losing everything when floods devastated their village. 
The waters also washed away the village mosque, wheat mill and the main bridge connecting the community to the regional market place. Sher Ali explains: “Our house was washed away. We lost our maize and wheat crop and even my father’s tomb stone.”
His family escaped the rising waters by trekking to higher ground, where they camped out for two nights - their only shelter was the clothes on their backs. The family is now staying with Sher’s uncle, who’s home already houses 12 other family members.
The Bahramands are one of many displaced families to receive a relief kit, which are being distributed through DEC member agency CAFOD. The kit contains essentials such as soap, pots and pans, a water filter, and other basics that the family lost during the deluge. Sher Ali said: “We’re now able to prepare our own food and have clean water for drinking and cooking.”
Before the floods, Sher Ali worked at a chicken farm and in onion orchard. But he has nothing to return to - both the farm and orchard were washed away, leaving him with no source of future income for his family.
Right now his only focus is to survive. Yet when asked what next, he simply states, “I’ll need a job, I need someway to help support my family.”
Where is your donation money going and how is it being spent?
The DEC compiled this list on 13 August and told Channel 4 News that it "offers a good indication" of how the £19m appeal fund is helping families in Pakistan:
ActionAid
• ActionAid is distributing hot food, food packages, fodder for livestock and items including mattresses, mosquito nets and plastic sheets for temporary shelter.
• Twelve medical camps are providing medicine and care particularly to women and children.
• Providing cooked food as well as giving out packs containing items including oil, flour, biscuits, pulses, bread and fresh vegetables.
Age UK / Help Age International
• In partnership with Merlin, Age UK is distributing mobility aids, hearing aids, food, emergency household items such as flashlights, bedding and water containers.
• They have medical staff trained on older people’s healthcare in Merlin’s emergency medical teams.
British Red Cross
• The Pakistan Red Crescent, with support from Movement partners, has already reached more than 250,000 people with emergency relief and shelter, and has provided medical support to over 30,000 individuals.
Cafod (Caritas)
• CAFOD through its partner agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have distributed items including plastic, sheeting, water purification tablets, hygiene kits, cookware and medicine to 6,300 people in areas including Shangla, Kohistan, the Swat Valley, and the Kohulu and Barkhan areas of Balochistan in the south.
• CRS engineers are now repairing five separate water systems in the Shangla district.
CARE International
• Tents have been distributed to 4,761 people in Nowshera and Charsaddah districts.
• CARE is supporting four Basic Health Units in Upper Swat and providing Primary Health Care services; approximately 5,200 patients have been treated so far.
Christian Aid
• A mobile health unit in Balakot, Mansehra District, is providing emergency health assistance as well as offering education on water-borne diseases – it has helped 1,400 people so far.
• 7,250 people have been given food in Balochistan and Khyber Pakthunkhwa and 1,000 have received tent materials.
Concern
• A total of 12,400 people have been given clean drinking water in Swat and Charsadda.
• Concern have distributed food packages to 1,016 people.
• At a medical camp 213 people have been given health assistance in the Charsadda district.
Islamic Relief
• Islamic Relief has delivered hygiene kits to 14,500 people as well vehicles and tents in the Nowshera and Mardan districts.
• Islamic Relief has distributed tents for 700 people in Nowshera and 400 more will be distributed to provide 2,800.
• IR is conducting six hygiene sessions benefiting 479 people.
Merlin
• Merlin is running 27 health clinics (11 Swat, 10 Buner, six Jalozai) and 14 mobile teams (six Swat, three Buner and five Nowshera), treating an average of 5,000 patients a day. They have also set up a health centre in Maydan school in Upper Swat where they are running 24/7 emergency and comprehensive care for families.
• Merlin’s mobile teams have been airlifted into some of the worst-affected areas with enough medicines to treat 40,000 people
• 4,000 packets of water purification tablets - enough to make 400,000 litres of safe drinking water - 48,000 packs of oral rehydration salts and 20,000 doses of antibiotics have been delivered to help fight the rising number of diarrhoeal disease and other infections.
• They are also setting up three Diarrhoea Treatment Units in three districts, capable of treating 300 patients at any one time.
Oxfam
• Toilets, latrines hand pumps, water tanks, and community water supply schemes have been set up in Sind and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• Oxfam have sent 19,000 water purification tablets, 455 latrine slabs/squatting plates and six de-watering kits - pumps for cleaning contaminated wells -which will provide clean water and sanitary conditions for tens of thousands of people.
• Health and hygiene kits, tents and hot meals have been distributed.
• Oxfam has provided clean water for over 150,000 people by fixing water systems and trucking clean water supplies.
Save the Children
• In the first 14 days, Save the Children had reached over 37,850 people through emergency medical care and distribution of tents, shelter kits, hygiene kits, food and supplies.
• Five mobile health teams treated more than 800 people, of which more than half were children under the age of five. Clean delivery kits, insecticide-treated bed nets, children’s and regular hygiene kits were distributed.
• Save the Children has established a diarrhoea treatment center in Swat for children and adults, and is distributing hygiene kits, and conducting hygiene promotion to prevent rise in water-borne diseases like acute watery diarrhoea.
Tearfund
• Tearfund has delivered food and shelter packs to over 8,000 people.
World Vision
• World Vision have reached more than 27,000 people with food, water, shelter and survival kits.
• Hundreds of patients a day are being seen at three health clinics in Lower Dir for respiratory and diarrhoeal illnesses.
