This Early Needs Identification (ENI) exercise was jointly conducted by the International Rescue Committee (IRC),
Sukaar Foundation and Research and Development Foundation (RDF) in four districts, i.e., Sanghar, Mirpur Khas,
Khairpur, and Dadu of Sindh province. In the ENI both the primary and secondary data was collected with a purpose to provide a quick overview of the humanitarian situation by identifying the immediate and evolving basic needs of vulnerable population dwelling in the flood affected areas of Sindh. The ENI provides a base for developing a response plan for addressing the needs identified on the ground. For primary data collection 68 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted with the local key informants (both men and women), representatives of NGOs/INGOs/UN agencies and government departments. The secondary data was collected from the national and provincial disaster management authorities and other humanitarian agencies. The data thus generated from the primary and secondary sources was triangulated to identify priority needs, availability, and access to basic needs of target population.
The current monsoon spell that started in the second week of July 2022 has caused widespread flooding and has led to extensive human and infrastructure damage across many parts of Pakistan. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)’ Monsoon Situation Report on August 30, 2022, 1,162 people have died and 3554 are injured in the country. Around 1,057,388 houses were damaged (including 324,386 fully and 733,002 partially damaged). In addition to this, around 5063 KM roads have been washed away, 243 bridges have collapsed, many shops have been destroyed and 730,483 animals have died. Sindh province is affected most adversely by heavy rainfall and resultant flooding in Pakistan. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh reported 405 deaths and 1074 severe injuries. Around, 896,084 houses have been damaged. Moreover, 2328 KM roads and infrastructure has vanished, bridges have collapsed, and 15,435 livestock perished in the province.
The IRC Pakistan through its local partners has been responding to the emergency needs of the people at the ground level since the onset of the emergency, and this ENI will help to inform IRC’s flood emergency response plan. Key findings of this ENI are as follows:
Access to Information: Overall 71% of the population does not have access to information. The situation was more critical in Khairpur district, followed by Sanghar, Mirpur Khas and Dadu. People like to receive information about weather/flood, followed by information related to relief assistance, safe spaces/camp establishment, access to main market to resume business activities and information about service providers working in their communities.
Safety: Around 38% of the sampled respondents reported that in current situation members of community are not at all feeling safe, 47% report that it not so safe whereas 15% were of the view that community is feeling relatively safe.
Availability of Basic Services: Overall very low percentage of the population reported having access to basic services due to flood situation. On average, only 17% population have access to health services, 14% to food and livelihood, 11% to mobile networks while WASH services, education, shelter, information services, legal assistance, hygiene supplies, women, and child protection services and MHPSS were least accessible services to population.
Priority Needs: Shelter and food were reported as the top-most priority needs, followed by potable water and sanitation services, Non-food items including Menstrual Hygiene Management items for women, health services and livelihood opportunities.
Vulnerable Groups: Pregnant and lactating women are highly vulnerable as reported by 97% of respondents, followed by women and adolescent girls (88%), persons having disabilities (78%), children of age 5 to 17 years (47%), persons with chronic illness (41%), mental health illness (25%) and minority groups with 13% response.
Shelter: In district Dadu, top two reported shelter types were tents and improvised shelter made from salvaged construction materials. In district Khairpur, majority of people are living in tents or in damaged houses. In Mirpur Khas damaged houses and tents were mostly reported as available shelter type. In district Sanghar, people were reported living in damaged houses, or they have no shelters but living in a building as collective accommodation.
Main concerns related to shelter needs included inhabitable houses, unavailability of shelters, overcrowded shelter, unavailability of repair/construction material and land issues.
Food and Livelihood: Overall, 32% of the respondents (highest in Khairpur) reported accessibility of the markets.
Similarly, 48% respondents from communities reported that markets are functional. Respondents who reported misfunctioning of the markets were further probed for the reasons of those 52% respondents among them shared that markets are submerged under water, while remaining 48% reported disconnect with main market as the main reason for inaccessibility. In total, 52% respondents reported that markets have sufficient supplies of basic commodities. Beside this, overall, 94% of the respondents shared that food items are not affordable due to flood related price increase. Overall, 90% of the respondents (highest in all districts) reported that the flood affected people face problems in providing sufficient food for their families.
Immediate Needs: Overall 72% of the respondents highlighted tent/shelter as their immediate need at this time, 50% stated cash as an immediate need, followed by food, NFIs and others as depicted in graph 13 below.
Health: Around 155 HFs are damaged in four districts mentioned above (90 in Mirpur Khas, 50 in Sanghar, 10 in Dadu and 5 in Kharipur). Around 30% to 40% of HFs are without basic medical supplies in these districts. The majority of people visit DHQ hospitals, followed by THQ, BHUs and then Medical Camps. Regarding availability of services at facilities, the community based KIIs revealed that in 63% facilities the required services are lacking while the KIIs with government revealed that in 56% health facilities these are not available. The respondents reported significant increase in patient caseload particularly in Diarrhea, Malaria, Skin infections, Cough and Fever, and other diseases. Overall, 97% of community Key Informants and 67% of government and NGOs respondents reported that availability of health staff and services are inadequate, while only 3% from community key informants and 22% from government key informants shared that these are at basic levels.
Regarding the availability of pregnancy and childbirth-related services, overall, only 6% of community and government/NGOs key informants reported that these services are available while around 94% mentioned unavailability of these services. The community key informants reported the below immediate support they needed w.r.t health in their areas to meet their health-related needs. These include adequate supplies of medicines, followed by 24/7 services, transportation, and trained staff.
WASH: Overall people don’t have access to clean drinking water in their communities. Around 70% people don’t have access to basic hygiene supplies, and 55% don’t have access to sufficient water. Similarly, 78% of women and girls face difficulties to access latrine facilities while overall 66% of the population do not have access to toilet facilities. 100% of community Key Informants from all 04 districts reported that there is no access of women and girls to any menstrual hygiene supplies in the current disastrous situation.
Overall, 68% respondents reported that people in their community are feeling distressed due to current crises in their area due to lack of access to basic services, loss of property, livelihood sources and assets/ valuables and lack of information
Protection: Among these the top and mostly reported issues are no access to health services, psychological trauma, stress and anxiety, no access to information due to communication barriers, no access to other essential services, and other issues including violence, harassment, insecurity, isolation from families, economic exploitation, and loss of necessary documents during floods. Likewise, women and girls, children are also a marginalized group and are exposed to protection related issues. These include no access to education, child labour, psychological trauma, violence against children. Child abuse and child/forced marriages were also reported as protection issues. Overall, 19% respondents were of the view that protection concerns increased very significantly in current situation in the area. Safe spaces for women, adolescent girls and children, shelters, access to information, provision of dignity kits or hygiene items and referrals to service providers were identified as priority needs.
Education: Around 44% reported unavailability of education facilities in their respective areas. After floods the schools are closed and currently the children are not going to schools. According to Govt. officials and key informants from organizations, on around 35 schools in district Dadu, 127 schools in Khairpur, 54 in Mirpur khas while 98 education facilities in Sanghar are being used as evacuation centers and/or shelters for displaces population due to floods. Only 13% of the respondents (in district Dadu only) reported access of children to education facilities while remaining 87% reported no access of children to education facilities due to floods. Key barriers in accessing education facilities or not sending their children to schools included damaged school buildings, debris in school, children engagement in income generation activities, far/distant schools, prevalence of protection issues/risk in the way to school and unavailability of WASH services in the school. Overall, 53% respondents reported school building repair/rehabilitation as their most immediate need, 56% mentioned removal of flood water from school premises, followed by establishment of new learning spaces (53%), school kits provision (38%), cash assistance (22%) and p rovision of mats mentioned by 3% respondents.
Original Source: https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/early-needs-identification-flood-disaster-sindh-pakistan