Pakistan flood

People in the south Pakistani province of Sindh are still talking about last year’s flood. Eight-year-old Kando had never before seen such quantities of water. He says he remembers how the current washed everything away – people’s belongings, homes, boats and nets. The 40 families living in Kando’s village had only been able to save a bit of gold and their identification cards. Families have long since returned to the place of their washed-away homes at the riverbanks of the Indus. The Pakistani aid organization "HANDS" (a partner organization of the German organization Medico International) has donated wooden boats and nets.

One fisherman named Mahmand says the donations are not quite enough. "We need engines for our boats so we can go further out and we need larger nets so we can catch more fish and earn more money." He says the families also need real houses and their children should be able to go to school.

Mahmand shares his boat with three others. They sell their catch in the closest city. The thin fisherman explains that their income is better today than it was before the flood but that they are not able to save any money.

Dependent on aid

The aid organizations are doing everything they can to help rebuild the regions destroyed in the flood. Engines are just one more item on their long shopping lists. Aijaz of HANDS says local people have no luck going to the authorities for help. He says they go to see the district officer "but they are usually just sent home."

Mahmand says sometimes it is even worse than that. "Most of our problems are with the police. They think up some charges against us and then extort us."

Saeed Jumani, a district officer in Sindh, says these claims are not true. He says, "city officers must follow rules. Aid organizations, on the other hand, have more leeway. Billions of rupees are needed for reconstruction here; neither the districts nor the province have that kind of money."

The Pakistani government claims that less than one third of donations that were promised by international organizations has arrived in Pakistan. But according to UN figures, 85 percent of the three billion US dollars in donations from around the world have gone to Islamabad.

Sindh was worst hit by the flooding. 43 percent of the people there are still living in tents and waiting for the streets, schools and embackments to be adequately repaired.

Long way to go

Aid organizations like HANDS are playing a pivotal role in the area’s reconstruction. HANDS has been in Sindh for decades. With aid money from Germany, it has been able to set up nine new villages since the beginning of this year. It also provides start-up funds for farmers and small businesses, education and training programs and health care.

But Saeed Jumani says such projects only turn the flood victims into beggars and leaches. He says, "people don’t take any initiative anymore. They expect some aid organization or the state to pick up all the tabs."

The flood victims who wish to benefit from HANDS' help have to become active themselves. Medico International does not want to turn people into passive recipients of aid, but instead help them build up their own communities. It seems the only people who are becoming passive as a result of aid organizations in Pakistan are members of the government.

Most of the aid workers note that the best thing the Pakistani government is doing to help is staying out of the organizations’ way.

Author: Sabina Matthay / sb
Editor: Grahame Lucas