After the Flood in Pakistan 38 Berlin Geographical Papers - Freie ...

Source: data recorded by ZELF team, Freie Universität Berlin,
February – March 2011
Fig. 5.15: Occupational structure in Ahmed Raju
Box 6: Model villages as an example for inappropriate housing schemes
Source: photograph © David Kersting, February
16, 2011
Model villages in Ahmed Raju
Model villages are an important infrastructural
phenomenon in the area that can be found in the
villages of Ahmed Raju and Golo Mandhro.
They were built by Housing Schemes of political
organisations after the cyclone of 2003 with the
intention to provide villagers with houses more
resistant to natural hazards as their traditional
kacha houses.
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entry through application of
sandbags that direct the
distribution of water to three
different canals. Dominant
cultivated crops are rice for
subsistence and cotton as a cash
crop in kharif season as well as
sunflower for sale in rabi
season. Agricultural pro-ducts
are usually sold on the bazaar in
Golajir or Badin.
Unfortunately the houses match neither the
natural environment nor the social demands of
the village’s residents: in Golo Mandhro, the
houses have never been accepted and remain
largely vacant, and the houses in Ahmed Raju
remain unfinished to date with apparently no
construction work ongoing as the main
contractor pulled out recently. In both villages
the houses lack a solid basis and loose stability
on the waterlogged ground. With such
inapporpriate building sites the authorities
constantly ignored local expertise: With regard
to the inappropriate construction material Abdul
Shakur, resident of Ahmed Raju, states “We told
the government but they would not listen”.