Thousands of One-Room Shelters to Help Many More Flood Victims Recover in Pakistan
IOM is expanding its one-room shelter project to support the
construction of an initial 25,000 one-room shelters in Pakistan's
flood-affected provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The project is based on a successful pilot project assisting flood
victims in rebuilding one habitable room.
"Shelter remains a priority need four months after the onset of
Pakistan's worst floods on record," says IOM Regional
Representative for West and Central Asia Hassan Abdel Moneim
Mostafa. "With harsh winter weather in the North and chilly nights
in the South it is crucial to assist those who have nothing to
rebuild at least one habitable room," he adds.
The floods left over 1.6 million houses destroyed or damaged.
Aid agencies have managed to provide emergency shelter to nearly
700,000 families. Despite the scale of the response, this covers
only 43 per cent of emergency shelter needs. An estimated 600,000
families are still without adequate shelter.
As most flood victims are back in their places of origin,
Shelter Cluster agencies have started to construct thousands of
transitional shelters and one-room shelters. But the immense scale
of the disaster accompanied by a slow response to an emergency
shelter appeal has meant that aid agencies are a long way from
covering the total needs.
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IOM's pilot one-room shelter project which involved the
construction of around 500 such shelters in the worst affected
provinces of Sindh and Punjab is about to be completed shortly. The
project, which is in line with the Shelter Cluster strategy to use
flexible and cost-effective shelter support, has provided valuable
experience in taking it to a larger scale.
The one-room shelter, a durable solution for those who can
return to their places of origin, can last between three to five
years and can also be expanded by upgrading the construction. The
project uses local housing designs and locally available materials.
It takes around 10 days to build one such shelter.
Given the varying needs of individual families, IOM will provide
cash transfers allowing individual, needs-based support, monitored
by mobile IOM evaluators in the field. Families have to construct
the shelter themselves with help from neighbours, which mobilizes
communities' capacity for self-help.
Cash grants of Rs 25,500 (around USD 300) will be transferred in
three tranches and are conditional on each entire group of
beneficiaries meeting specific construction milestones with a group
comprising 10 households in one neighbourhood.
The project will be carried out by local implementing partners
and will start in early January 2011, if not sooner. Implementation
will be closely coordinated with other Shelter Cluster agencies,
local and district authorities, as well as Pakistan's National
Disaster Management Authority.
Implementing the pilot project and preparing the rollout has
taken time due to the still-wet ground in many of the
flood-affected areas. Some parts of Sindh remain flooded four
months on.
Funding for shelter assistance also remains a major issue. A
donation of USD10 million from the Office of US Foreign Disaster
Assistance (OFDA) will enable IOM to support the construction of at
least 16,000 one-room shelters. However, IOM is urgently seeking
additional funds to provide the one-room shelter solution to as
many flood victims as possible in order to get them safely through
the winter and beyond.
For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan, to
download the IOM Appeal or to donate to IOM's flood response,
please go to:
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"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.
For media queries please contact:
Eliane Engeler
IOM Islamabad
Tel: +92.300 852 6357
E-mail:
"mailto:eengeler@iom.int">eengeler@iom.int