Situation Update on Balochistan Flood – July 23, 2010

• January 28, 2013
• 0 Comments
• SPO

Update July 23, 2010 at 6.30 pm

The arrival of monsoon flavor in Balochistan has brought heavy rain causing flash flooding in spontaneous parts of Balochistan between night 21st and 22nd July. Barkan, Sibi and Kohlu Districts are the most affected areas. According to reliable sources the incident claimed 50 lives and severe damages to the infrastructures and livelihoods of more than 10,000 people.

As per details, the protective walls of Hann Dam at Bibartak, were breached due to rising of water level, ultimately resulting in inundation of numerous nearby villages. The major part of flash flood started from the breach in Hann damn, contributed by heavy rain fall and run-off water from hills. The flood moved from Hann to Nikri, Loma Zehri, Narkot, Singhali, Vatakari and Jabhar after this point the flood water lost its intensity and got spread over the plain areas. It is feared that if the torrential rains, continue with the same intensity, it might lead to further flooding in Kohlu, Barkhan, Sibi and Bolan districts.

SPO Emergency Response
After the reports started coming in last evening about the growing threats of floods and possible threat to lives and livelihood of people, SPO Quetta office kept eye on the situation and early morning teams were mobilized for Kohlu, Sibi and Barkhan. Furthermore, SPO partner organizations have been asked to remain vigilant and start helping people within their communities and collecting information and data of the affected people. Two Civil Society networks have also been taking part in the response and relief activities along with local authorities and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMA), were available. So far, SPO has collected the following data with the support of their partner organizations and local actors.

Human losses: more than 50 peoples are missing and feared dead, out of which 15 dead bodies have been recovered yet. Besides, human losses, major infrastructure damages, affecting livelihood of thousands of people have been reported. A brief of preliminary damage assessment is provided below:

S.No	UCs	Tehsil	Village	Affected Population	Details of Damages
1	Tali	Sibi	Tali, Sultan Kot,	12,000	540 Houses, Agriculture Land, more than 4000 Livestock
2	Mal	Sibi	Chandia, Qasir, Gola, Qasir Ghohramzai, Imam Bux Chachar, Juma, Garkhan, Old Mal, Hara, Gohramzai, Gorgaje, Korzameen, Gishkori	10,000	450 Houses, Agriculture Land, more than 4500 Livestock
3	Tharee	Lehri	Tharee Fath ALi, Tharee Brahmani, Railo, Gulab, Bagdar, Gola	7,500	7 People injured, 500 Houses, Agriculture Land, around 4,600 Livestock
4	Sadar Nargorh	Barkhan	UC Sadar Nargoh	15,000	18 Casualties,7 People missing
5	Bakhtiar Abad	Lehri	UC Bakhtiar Abad	12,452	3 Casualties, large number of household

Coordination with other Civil Society Actors and Government Agencies
A meeting of various civil society organizations was held at SPO Quetta office in which 10 national/international and local organizations participated to gauge the severity of the situation.  During the meeting following decisions were made:
Key Decisions:
•    An information cell and data base will be developed at  SPO office with the support of all partners
•    SPO Quetta Office will be focal organization for the coordination of assessment and relief work
•    For sharing information with relevant stakeholders, an e-mail group would be formed.
•     CRS will be the focal organization in Kohlu and Barkhan, to work in affected communities from their Loralai setup.
•    IDSP Sibi Office would be considered as focal office.
•    PEACE Balochistan‘s Dera Murad Jamali and Bolan office will operate as focal organizations in concerned districts
•    CARITAS will provide human resource for the assessment in Sibi and Barkhan
•    MRDS will also join assessment team at Barkhan
•    SPO partners and other CSN organizations will coordinate with CRS in Barkhan and Kohlu
•    In Sibi, Bolan and Naseerabad SPO will be the focal organization with the support of IDSP,CARITAS,PEACE-Balochistan and civil society networks  of Naseerabad and Sibi
•    Concern international shared that they will support in relief activities after assessment in affected areas, they also shared that they have enough food and non food items available which will be provided to implementing partners after assessment completion.
•    It was decided that Fouzia Khajjak from SPO will be provincial focal person for the coordination and she will be responsible to develop daily based progress report and share with all partners working in affected areas.
•     SPO will conduct a meeting with PDMA to share all efforts made by different national, international NGOs to make coordinated effort to save the duplication of resources
•    Civil society network Quetta will contact with government officials especially PDMA representatives to strengthen the coordination among NGOs and Line department working in flood affected areas

Government Response
Realizing  the severity of situation, the  commissioner of Naseerabad and Sibi divisions have declared emergency in respected districts under their jurisdiction and they instructed all  health and administrative staff specially to be presented in the respected districts.

•    Local administration have declared emergency in the affected areas.
•    The NDMA has released 400 tents, 800 blankets and 800 plastic mats which are being collected by PDMA authorities from Quetta Warehouse. Moreover on request from NDMA, PRCS shall take care of food and health care needs of the affected population for the next 3 months.
•    Local formation of Army in collaboration with Frontier Corps (FC) has also initiated its rescue and relief operation. Three helicopters have been earmarked and put on standby, due to weather conditions, for conduct of these operations. Some 60 individual military troops and four medical teams have proceeded from Loralai to the affected area in order help in the relief activities.

Immediate Needs
The number of directly affected people is estimated at 5000 comprising of 418 households. The immediate relief required based on the needs of the people is as below:

1. Drinking Water
2. Food
3. Kitchen Utensils
4. Transitional Shelter

For further details or any other relevant information, you may contact SPO staff at following locations,

1.    Mukhtiar Chalgari-(Quetta)-03458300130
2.    Fouzia Khajjaz-03337931296
3.    Farooq Magsi-03013719957
4.    Syed Shahan Abbas – (Islamabad)-0321-9696177
5.    Noor Baloch-(Islamabad)-0321-2290286

Mukhtiar Chalgari
Regional Head SPO-Quetta, H # 109-A, Jinnah Town
Ph: 081-2870750 – Quetta

Malick Shahbaz Ahmad Tahir
Special Project Section
Mobile: 0300-5556324
Ph: (051)2104677, 2104679-80, 8316890, 2298892-3
Strengthening Participatory Organization – Islamabad