Implementation of Community Based Activities for Risk ... - Agire

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FINAL REPORT “Implementation of Community Based Activities for Risk Reduction and Mitigation of NaturalDisaster Impacts in the Province of Herat, Western Afghanistan”4. PROJECT ACTIVITIES PROGRESS REPORTFollowing the preliminary phase, core activities of the intervention have started from September 2011. Atthe end of August INTERSOS, in order to enhance the effectiveness of the planned interventions onbeneficiaries’ living conditions, settled a close collaboration with the Italian Civil Protection. Thiscollaboration was realized trough CIMA Research Foundation – International Centre on EnvironmentalMonitoring. CIMA is a no-profit organization based in Savona with the main aim to sustain researches inenvironmentally related fields, focusing on public health and safety, civil protection and the preservation ofterrestrial and water-related ecosystems.During this cooperation, Intersos international Project Manager was trained with 4 days course inSavona both on structural interventions and community awareness campaign activities. The training wasmainly focused on general information on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), specific understanding ofmonitoring water-related issues (river water level, rate of rainfall and snowfall) and punctual analysis of thestructural interventions planned for the implementation of the project.After the movement of Intersos PM in the targeted areas (Herat Province, Western Afghanistan) thecoordination between Intersos PM and CIMA staff has kept working and resulted in the substantialmodification of part of the designed structural works.4.1 Sourestan and Gerdab villagesIn the area between Sourestan and Gerdab the construction of two masonry walls, respectively of200 and 180 meters, aimed at preventing the erosion of the banks of the Karabar river was planned. In fact,each year Karabar River is eroding several meters of cultivable land and, due to the increased soil erosionfaced during the beginning of 2011, seriously damaged a water channel bringing water to the surroundingvillages and the road connecting Sourestan to Herat City. After the second technical assessment and theconsultation with the line departments, the communities involved and mainly thanks to the constantsuggestions and advices from CIMA staff based on the data collected on the field and the satellite images ofthe relevant areas, INTERSOS decided to change the typology of intervention and to build a 650 meters longwooden picket fence, divided in two parts of 280 and 350 meters each, instead of the mentioned masonrywalls.This new typology, suggested by the high friability of the soil and the next arrival of the rainy season,would have allowed to cover a longer part of the river bank, minimizing the risk of collateral effectspotentially caused by the intervention and guaranteeing an easier community based maintenance of thestructure as well as a more sustainable reproduction of the intervention in the future. After the officialauthorization by UNOPS for the change of intervention received on 6 th of October, INTERSOS started theprocurement procedures for the needed materials namely wooden poles, stones for the basement of thewooden fence, iron material (galvanized wire, nails and screw) and gabions for the reinforcement of thestructure. At the same time INTERSOS conducted a deep community mobilization in order to ensure thecollaboration of the involved community during the works, both for explaining them the benefits of theintervention and for recruiting of daily workers.INTERSOS utilized one loader and one excavator for arranging the access to the site, essential for thetransportation of the materials to the working site, and for modifying the river banks as per project.Moreover, the machineries were used to deviate the water from the working site digging two channels ofKarte Parwan, District Four, Kabul - Afghanistanphone: +93 797 551123, e-mail: afghanistan@intersos.org8
FINAL REPORT “Implementation of Community Based Activities for Risk Reduction and Mitigation of NaturalDisaster Impacts in the Province of Herat, Western Afghanistan”totally 400 meters. The daily workers provided by the communities supported and assisted the heavymachineries during the first phase, lasting up to the Eid holidays (5 th of November). Unfortunately, due tothe adverse weather conditions occurred during Eid, a sudden flood occurred in Sourestan/Gerdab androughly wasting almost 50% of the works done up to date and damaging the stream which was bringingwater to the nearer villages. After a further inspection conducted once the water level in the sitedecreased, INTERSOS, together with UNOPS and ANDMA representative, decided to cancel the plannedintervention and stopped the procurements related to the construction of the picket fence.In order to compensate the damages occurred to the communities initially targeted as beneficiaries ofthe intervention (damage of the stream and loss of the soil already moved in the first phase of theimplementation), INTERSOS dealt with the communities through the Injil District Governor Office in orderto reestablish the provision of water to the cultivable lands and to allows to the beneficiaries to start theseeding of the lands. The disputes among the communities have been settled and INTERSOS identifiedanother location for the implementation of the works.4.2 Ali Abad and Garmi Abad villagesThe construction of a 600 meters long protection masonry wall was planned in the area near the villagesof Ali Abad and Garmi Abad. In fact, due to the soil erosion caused by the seasonal floods, the communitiesliving in these areas have been obliged to leave the houses built along the banks of Harirud river andmoreover they have lost several hectares of cultivable land and grassland. After the second technicalassessment and the consultation with the line departments and the communities involved, INTERSOSdecided to partially change the typology of intervention, mainly thanks to the constant suggestions andadvices from CIMA staff based on the data collected on the field and the satellite images of the relevantareas, opting for a 600 meters long gabion protection wall instead of the masonry wall. This decision wassuggested by the instability of the ground in the area and the approaching of the rainy season, period whenit would have been difficult working with big quantities of cement on open air. Moreover, this typology ofintervention would guarantee both a higher resistance to the pressure exerted by the water in case of floodand a better adaptability to the eventual movements of the ground beneath, due to the inherent propertiesof the gabions, and would allow the beneficiaries to periodically maintain the protection wall. After theofficial authorization by UNOPS for the change of intervention received on 6 th of October, INTERSOS startedthe procurement procedures for the needed materials namely gabions stones for filling gabion and ironmaterial (galvanized wire and gabion net) for the participation of the community to the process ofconstruction of a part of the needed gabions.At the same time INTERSOS conducted a deep community mobilization in order to ensure thecollaboration of the involved community during the works, both for explaining them the benefits of theintervention and for recruiting of daily workers.INTERSOS started the activities for the implementation of the project during the month of October. Thefirst phase was the digging of foundation for the 600 meters long protection gabion wall: in order to speedup the works, INTERSOS utilized an excavator and the first phase has been completed within the 27 th ofNovember. At the same time, INTERSOS started the trainings for the workers in order to support them withthe needed knowledge for the implementation.Karte Parwan, District Four, Kabul - Afghanistanphone: +93 797 551123, e-mail: afghanistan@intersos.org9
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