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

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Box 7: Rajad Mallah: Coping with social exclusion Rajad Mallah lives with his wife and three daughters in the south-eastern Mallah community of Ahmed Raju. His house is built on government property and is poorly rebuild after the cyclone in 2003, compared to most houses in the main village. He also lost most of his livestock, his boat and his son during the cyclone in 2003. Besides the personal tragedy, the cyclone was economically devastating because the only income source of his household is catching fish which he sells in the main village. Luckily he could save one water buffaloe and a fishing net. As member of the non-native fishermen communities he faces social exclusion by the dominant groups of villagers that result in the denial of loans from shopkeepers and exclusion from using the hand pumps. His household is forced to use the brackish irrigation canal as a Source: photograph © David Kersting February 17, 2011 Household of Rajad Mallah 36 source of drinking water which results in multiple health issues such as malaria, cholera and skin diseases affecting all household members. These add to the addiction to the pungent betelnut mixture (pan) that is widely spread in the Mallah community. During the time of water shortage the Mallah have to dig wells to get access to saline underground water. Apart from solidarity within his community the NGO Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) provides him with support, for example bamboo sticks for the reconstruction of his house after the 2003 cyclone. Still the family of Rajad Mallah is living of one meal per day because he was not able to fully recover from the impacts of the cyclone. The household is representative for many among the communities of fisherfolk and illustrates how social exclusion aggravates the impact of a natural hazard.
5.1.3.1 Local impacts of natural hazards Ahmed Raju was not significantly affected by the flood of 2010. The last disastrous hazard events the villagers faced were the big cyclones in 1999 and 2003. Even though a part of the inhabitants were evacuated by the government and lives saved, a majority of houses were destroyed, and there occurred serious losses in harvest, livestock and incomegenerating equipment. Until today, the bad housing conditions, shortage of equipment and livestock remain a problem for the vulnerable village population. In this respect hazards aggravated already existing ecological and socio-economic problems and inequalities. Because of the existing infrastructure, the low dependency on big landlords and the fact that the last environmental catastrophe is a decade behind, Ahmed Raju appears to be one of the less vulnerable villages taking part in the assessment (cf. Fig. 5.16). However, the diversity of social groups also reflects diverse vulnerability conditions, and most households of the fisherfolk communities score very high VCI values indicating their high exposure to threats and lack of capacity to deal with them. Sheikh Kiryo Bhandari Golo Mandhro Ahmed Raju Ahmed Sorjo Alloo Noonari Wali Mohammad Laghari Zafar Abad Mehrab Qambrani n=296 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Source: data recorded by ZELF team, Freie Universität Berlin, February – March 2011 Fig. 5.16: Average VCI score The catastrophic cyclones of 1999 and 2003 have left their permanent marks, but the very frequent intrusion of ocean water and subsequent salinisation and waterlogging represent continuous serious threats for village agriculture as the backbone of local economic activities. Landowners face a loss of arable land while fishermen suffer from a decrease of fresh-water fish availability. In addition to this direct economic impacts of local environmental conditions compounded by the LBOD/KPOD canal system, salinisation and waterlogging lead to a decreasing quality of drinking water and multiple related health problems. These problems have their biggest impact on the marginalised fishing communities in the village who migrated to Ahmed Raju because they faced similar environmental problems in 37 Badin Thatta Dadu
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Page 6 and 7: living conditions, that reach the m
Page 9 and 10: Table of Contents 1 Introduction -
Page 11 and 12: List of Figures Fig. 1.1: Generic t
Page 13: List of acronyms ADB - Asian Develo
Page 16 and 17: mentation of development packages b
Page 18 and 19: Fig. 1.4: Pakistan overview and loc
Page 20 and 21: and man-made hazards are dominant.
Page 22 and 23: 3 Rapprochement of the field: resea
Page 24 and 25: The teams continued performing focu
Page 26 and 27: Table 4.1: Elements of the Vulnerab
Page 28 and 29: A major finding of the assessment t
Page 30 and 31: 5 Post-disaster assessment - distri
Page 32 and 33: As such it comes as no surprise tha
Page 34 and 35: away or even further, to Badin city
Page 36 and 37: Box 3: The household of Ali Bux - a
Page 38 and 39: Source: data recorded by ZELF team,
Page 40 and 41: consists of three overland wires bu
Page 42 and 43: mediocre quality - and the regularl
Page 44 and 45: 5.1.2.1 Levels of vulnerability in
Page 46 and 47: 5.1.2.2 Implications for developmen
Page 52 and 53: their homelands in Thatta. Members
Page 54 and 55: make it possible again for the fish
Page 56 and 57: During their flight the people had
Page 58 and 59: Box 8: The economics of barfi produ
Page 60 and 61: Source: data recorded by ZELF team
Page 64 and 65: 5.2.2 Alloo Noonari - complete floo
Page 66 and 67: There is a village council that con
Page 68 and 69: Severe shortage of money prevents v
Page 70 and 71: 5.2.2.3 Shelter, drinking water and
Page 72 and 73: 5.2.3 Summary of findings: loss of
Page 74 and 75: Similar to the situation in Thatta
Page 76 and 77: Data Sources: GeoEye satellite imag
Page 78 and 79: K.N. Shah assumes importance also f
Page 80 and 81: Box 15: Social water management and
Page 82 and 83: Potentials of changing the Sindhi c
Page 84 and 85: 5.3.2.2 Local impacts of the flood
Page 86 and 87: For all households it can be establ
Page 88 and 89: to goods and services the villagers
Page 90 and 91: The flood crisis has aggravated the
Page 94 and 95: provides shelter to a number of hou
Page 96 and 97: Most people in the village are not
Page 98 and 99: These conditions require most house
Page 100 and 101:
Box 22: Struggling with disaster Mo
Page 102 and 103:
6 Conclusions: vulnerability assess
Page 104 and 105:
perceived as an option, conditional
Page 106 and 107:
Most effectively, the problem could
Page 108 and 109:
7 References Arif Hasan (2009) The
Page 110:
Berlin Geographical Papers Vol. 37
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