No More Mourning on Flood Losses

“Not this time!”, said Ashraf Ghani resolutely responding to a fellow villager who had reached his home amidst heavy rain in the middle of the night to see if he could do something to avoid the usual damage such rains brought upon their village Hafizabad – prone to heavy rains, flash floods, and landslides. Their village falls in Union Council Garlat, Tehsil Balakot, District Mansehra of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

Ghani was sure that he could handle the situation, as he knew he had trained people as well as provided the necessary equipment to deal with the impending disaster. He had already mobilized the Village Disaster Management Committee (VMDC) which was formed a few weeks earlier, during the training sessions on disaster preparedness organized by the Global Educational Economic and Social Empowerment (GEESE) with the support from Ambassador’s Fund Grants Program. The trainings were provided as part of an eight-month project to make communities disaster resilient by establishing and training 12 VDMCs on disaster management, planning, and mitigation. Each VDMC was also provided emergency response kits.

In a short while, a team of volunteers rushed to the natural water streams, which could flood the village. They looked for the weaker parts of the embankments, and strengthened them using the toolkits they had received during the training on disaster preparedness. They had planned to do that while making disaster management plan for their village. However, rains arrived before they could implement their plan.

Still, the morale of the volunteers was quite high. Despite heavy rain, they continued to monitor the water channels, and kept strengthening the embankments where needed.

Another team of trained volunteers was helping people who lived near the water channels to save their belongings, and move to safer houses in case of flooding. As a proactive measure, they evacuated the persons with disabilities and elderly people to safer places on a priority basis.

They arranged for food, medicines, and were in touch with the local administration in case they needed any emergency services like ambulance or support in evacuation.

Finally, the rains ended, and everybody took a sigh of relief. The entire village was happy to know that no household in the village reported any loss of life or property. This was an extraordinary achievement for the people and especially for the VDMC members and volunteers. They celebrated their success and vowed to continue their efforts to protect their village from disasters. Moreover, they decided to implement their disaster management plan immediately as another spell of rains or landslide could take place anytime.

For the coming days, they plan to clear the water channels from any impediments, which may hinder the water flow to the river Kunhar down in the valley. Additionally, they are going ahead with the plantation drive to diminish the chances of land sliding. They intend to get the saplings from the local forest department during the next round of national tree plantation drive, and plant them at the steep- sloped and unstable places, to prevent land sliding.