Hyderabad hub responds to growing shelter needs in southern Sindh

As floodwaters recede in the north and centre of the country leaving devastation in their wake, thousands more families are facing displacement in southern Sindh as Manchar Lake in Sindh’s Dadu and Jamshoro districts starts to overflow.

IOM has opened a new hub in Hyderabad to speed up distribution of shelter material and non-food relief items in the area. The hub has already distributed more than 11,000 tarpaulins, over 10,000 jerry cans, some 11,500 blankets and more than 2,000 ropes to displaced families in Thatta, Dadu, Badin, Jamshoro and Hyderabad districts.

The relief items were donated by USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and distributed through IOM local partners Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), Action for Humanitarian Development (AHD) and John Social Welfare Organisation (JSWO).

“The Hyderabad hub brings the Emergency Shelter Cluster and our logistics capacity closer to the people who most need our help as the epicentre of this vast disaster continues to move south,” says IOM Regional Representative for West and Central Asia Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.

IOM coordinates the efforts of the “cluster” -- a group of over 70 international and local aid agencies -- providing emergency shelter and other non food relief items, including tents, plastic sheeting, bedding and household goods to flood victims.

“Cluster agencies have managed to get emergency shelter to over 300,000 households or 2.1 million people since early August, but the needs remain staggering, particularly in Sindh, where we are still only reaching a small fraction of the families who need a roof over their heads,” says Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.

According to the government’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), over 1.8 million houses have been damaged or destroyed by the floodwaters nationwide. Using a conservative estimate of seven people per household, this would suggest that as many as 10 million people may still be without basic shelter from wind, rain and sun.

But international consignments of shelter aid are continuing to arrive in the country. IOM has now taken delivery of 27 flights carrying consignments from USAID/OFDA, UK/DFID, the European Union, the UN and Americares. On Thursday, it took delivery of 3,000 tents donated to NDMA by China.

New funding is also coming in. IOM’s August flood appeal for US $38 million is now 68 per cent funded at US $26 million. Its new appeal, which will be released in New York later on Friday as part of the Floods Emergency Response Plan (FERP), will seek to more than triple the original amount. Details of the IOM appeal will appear on the IOM website by 7 a.m. PST today