Thatta, which is the second largest district of Sindh in terms of area, is disaster prone and the floods of 2010 caused widespread devastation here. Although aid and assistance poured into this and other affected areas of the country when the deluge struck; woefully little research was conducted in the aftermath of the natural calamity to assess the lingering socio-economic impact.
Now, two years after the flood waters raged over these lands, the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) has released a gendered analysis of the socio-economic impact of the floods in Thatta. The report provides insights for improving disaster response in the future, and to better address the challenges faced by men and women in times of tragedy.
The distinguishing factor of SPDC’s research is that it has collected responses from households across the district; tapping male and female members of the same households to assess the differential impact of the floods, based on gender.
The findings challenge some of the trends in government and its response. For instance, the report has highlighted that cash transfers to flood affectees have not yielded the requisite level of support for them. It has asserted that a better approach in the future would be to provide livestock to those who lose their animals, along with technical skills and microfinance.
Among the respondents, most were recipients of the Watan Card, besides being beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme. Yet their overwhelming majority reported that there were no official assessments of their personal losses prior to the allocation of compensation to them.
In Keti Bandar, 100 percent of respondents said no government representative had checked the damages to their property. This revelation highlights an ad-hoc doling out of government support, without regard for the individual’s plight.
Similarly, currently deployed vigilance measures are inadequate and likely to worsen with the end of local governments in the province. No less than 43.1 percent of female respondents to the survey stated that they first learnt about the coming floods through the local government. By comparison, local police, electronic media and neighbourhood mosques were the first to inform only 9.2 percent, 6.2 percent and 2.1 percent of the population, according to the respondents.
This finding underscores the key role local government plays in alerting and preparing local populations to looming threats and also in helping to address the ensuing challenges.
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