The resilience and forbearance of Pakistanis, who have been through a lot in nearly 64 years since their countrys existence, was tested again last year when the floods of 2010 - aptly called a slow-moving Tsunami by the United Nations (UN) Secretary General - disrupted lives of more than 18 million Pakistanis in just a matter of five weeks. This fortitude in the aftermath of the great floods wasn lost on United Nations (UN) which commended it in its one-year overview of the response to the mega-disaster. It says, "The breathtaking resilience of the people of Pakistan has been and continues to be a source of inspiration. Those affected by the floods have demonstrated a striking courage and strength to survive and rebuild their lives, in the face of extraordinary adversity". The publication titled Pakistan Floods: One Year On integrates humanitarian work of various UN agencies, international NGOs and other donor agencies and highlights key features of the disaster. The daunting scale of the disaster led the UN to launch a $1.96 billion appeal in September 2010 - the single-largest in UNs history - to provide aid for up to 14 million people over a 12-month period. According to the UN, roughly 70 percent of the requirements have been met as at July 22, 2011. Funding for food items has been 75 percent of the requirements; shelter and non-food items, 58 percent; and water, sanitation and hygiene, 52 percent. International response under the bilateral funding has been $1.1 billion, says the UN. Some critical lessons are there to be learnt. This was a mega disaster and one that required multiple stakeholders - local and foreign - to synergise their efforts to reach out to maximum number of people. The UN seems to have realised this as it has proposed to set up "an Inter-Agency Disaster Management Team in order to be better prepared to respond to disasters from the outset with an integrated approach". With majority of the humanitarian organisations and donor agencies based in the north (read Islamabad) and having limited human resources; stretching out and scaling up were serious challenges for them to provide timely relief to the affected people. "The response was complicated and challenging, and though it was imperfect it was also a feat of cooperation, collaboration, and coordination", observed the UN. The UN also cites complex coordination issues in dealing with local, regional and national authorities owing to huge extent and expanse of the crisis. While better coordination is expected in the future, the UN has also called upon the humanitarian community to be more flexible and adaptive to the context of the disaster and unique needs of the affected population. Pakistan could be reeling from this mega-disaster for many years to come as the most vulnerable groups suffered the greatest losses. UN expects even slower progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and increased poverty, illiteracy, disease and destitution. Floods have also exposed nutrition and sanitation conditions in central and southern parts of the country - previously overlooked by donors. Role of the humanitarian community throughout the crisis and in its aftermath is much appreciated and it is great to see the UN reaffirming its commitment to supporting the recovery of flood survivors. It has also called out the international community to support the recovery process and play their roles as global citizens. On the domestic front, serious work needs to be done on preemption (e.g. flood early warning system), disaster risk management (DRM), and reconstruction of destruction-resistant infrastructure. Since disasters strike at the grassroots level, there ought to be sufficient capacities and capabilities at the lower tier of the government- district level or local governments. Highlights of the Humanitarian communitys response to Early Recovery initiative*
============================================================================================ Area Response to date UN Appeal ($1.96 billion) 70 percent fulfilled; $413 million remaining Health Essantial medicines provided to 14 million people Nutrition Over 350,000 malnourished children saved through feeding centers Hygiene Water and Sanitation provided to 1.6 million households Housing Around 64,000 transitional shelters; 2 million underway Education Over 0.7 million children provided educational support Agriculture Support provided to 46,300 households Community infrastructure 3,637 units restored/built, benefitting 1.5 million people ============================================================================================
* non-governmental; incudes UNs role Source: United Nations report: Pakistan Floods - One year on (28th July, 2011)
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