How Welsh donations are helping rebuild lives after flood devastation
On September 1, 2022, the Disasters Emergency Committee launched the Pakistan Floods Appeal after monsoon rains led to the worst flooding on record. The appeal raised £46.5m in the first six months, including £1.3m from Wales. Here the DEC gives an update on a still-perilous situation
WHEN the annual monsoon rains began in Pakistan this time last year, few imagined the scale of the disaster that would unfold over the coming months.
Continuing well beyond their usual timeframes, the incessant downpours soon caused historic levels of flooding, affecting an estimated 33 million people and destroying or badly damaging more than two million homes.
In response, the DEC launched the Pakistan Floods Appeal in September 2022, as millions of people found themselves homeless and in urgent need of humanitarian support.
This appeal has by now raised £1.3m in Wales, including a £100,000 donation by the Welsh Government. The UK total stands at £48m. A recently published report by the DEC outlines how donations made in Wales, along with those across the rest of the UK, allowed the DEC’s member charities not only to save lives in the immediate aftermath of the floods – providing emergency shelter, clean water, food and healthcare, but also to support families who’d lost their agricultural income as their land remained underwater and the local economy ground to a halt.
During the first six months of the Pakistan Floods Appeal, DEC member charities provided temporary shelter to 66,400 people, access to safe drinking water to 123,000 people, food assistance such as wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil to 50,400 people and assistance to recover their livelihoods (such as seeds, fertiliser and livestock) to 4,200 people.
Dr Abid Mehmood, lecturer in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University and expert in climate resilience, who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, said: “Pakistan is one of the countries on the frontlines of climate change. Last year we saw flooding on a historic scale, and just this month we saw 180,000 people evacuated in anticipation of Cyclone Biparjoy.
“This is a stark reminder about the fragility of human societies and ecosystems and the multiple challenges the climate crisis is generating.”
Despite the fact that many families still face a difficult situation, future flooding is increasingly likely as the climate crisis fuels new and unpredictable weather extremes.
DEC charities have also been helping at-risk communities adapt and build resilience through projects such as training in climate-smart techniques for farmers, emergency drills, tree planting, and flood-resistant house building.
During the floods, agricultural worker Ayaz Ali and 11 members of his extended family were forced to seek shelter on the roof of a neighbouring house. “We used our charpais (woven beds) and sheets to give ourselves some shelter from the open sky,” he says.
Their relatives had attempted a rescue using a makeshift boat but the family feared that if it were to capsize the children would drown, and therefore remained on the roof for one month and 20 days, dependent on the delivery of rations for their survival.
Mr Ali has received support from DEC charity Tearfund‘s local partner, REEDS, which has included a tent for shelter, but also employment. The project has supported the creation of a local committee focused on disaster risk management at a local level.
Ayaz Ali was one of a team of men hired by the committee to build new waterways. The waterway will help to irrigate the dry lands by creating a channel for the water.
“After the rains it has become hot and dry. So if we have a watercourse then we can irrigate the land. The yield will be better for the crops here,” he said.
Work will continue on training farmers in climate-smart agriculture and conservation agriculture-based technologies and providing seeds and restocking livestock.
Healthcare has also been a crucial element of the DEC’s emergency response after the floods damaged health facilities and supplies in the affected areas of Pakistan, and stagnant waters became a breeding ground for mosquitos. Contaminated water sources also led to a spike in waterborne diseases such as cholera.
Like millions of others, Sultana and her family lost their home: “Our whole house was inundated with water for three to four months.”
She describes losing everything as they fled to a safer place. “My husband and I didn’t care about any possessions – we just wanted to keep our children safe.”
Sultana’s 10-year-old daughter, Ayra, caught malaria. Unable to pay for treatment, they received free care from a mobile clinic run by DEC charity CAFOD.
Sultana says: “They saved my daughter’s life. I vividly remember carrying her in my arms into the clinic. She was not conscious, and I feared for her life, but the doctors there saved her and gave her back her health.”
Ayra was one of more than 158,000 people who were provided with free health services by DEC charities, in the first six months after the Pakistan Floods Appeal.
Siân Stephen, the DEC’s external relations manager in Wales, said: “We’re incredibly proud that donations made by the Welsh public, businesses and other organisations, along with a generous contribution by the Welsh Government, amounted to £1.3m.
“These funds have saved lives and continue to help families recover and rebuild after this disaster. As we publish this report, we’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Wales for their generous response.
“In a warming world with increasingly unpredictable weather, this was the latest reminder that the climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis that is causing damage to lives and livelihoods on an ever-greater scale.”