PIN’s Afghan team supported 919 households mitigate flood risks
Published: Jan 31, 2014 Reading time: 3 minutes Share: Share an articlePista Bala and Belandaregh Bala are small communities located North of Afghanistan. Floods, landslides and droughts affect them yearly, destroying their harvests and houses. The large majority of the population depends on agriculture as a means of living, so these natural disasters have long lasting consequences on them. Both communities were affected by heavy hails and flash floods in April 2013.
People in Need’s (PIN) humanitarian team did not respond to the flood then, as the flooding did not destroy houses or severely affect agricultural lands. “However what was clear was that these communities are highly vulnerable to floods and to their consequences. For this reason we decided to help them learn to identify these events and mitigate them”, saysin Afghanistan Emanuela Macková, who manages the Emergency Response Mechanism (ERM), financed by ECHO (Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department of the European Commission).
To this end PIN’s Disaster response team joined forces with the Natural Resource Management team, whose objective is to develop sustainable practices in the management of natural resources at the local level.
Together, the team delivered a three day training to community members. Guided by community members in the village, the team identified the major risks, and together with the communities, defined the best approach to mitigate them. „We quickly understood that the communities themselves contribute to the risk, through intense cultivation and the continuous cutting of the scarce vegetation on the hills, which are the reason for soil degradation. The soil, weakened by these practices, is then unable to absorb water in the rainy season, which heightens flood risks, says Emanuela Macková.
PIN’s team suggested strengthening the soil on the hills by digging contour trenches, which favors water infiltration, strengthens the soil and encourages the growth of vegetation. With community representatives, PIN’s team selected individuals among the most vulnerable households, who were given the chance to earn an income while working on community projects.
„With the money I earned, I mostly bought food for my family. I also learned to better cultivate my lands, which will help me earn more in the future and also contribute to reduce the flood risk in our community,“ says fifty year old Muhammad Nader, who dug contour trenches in Belandaregh Bala.
Over 330 daily workers worked 14 days to dig up to 9000 contour trenches, which will protect two communities with a total of 919 households. „But the work of PIN’s team doesn’t end here. Farmers in Pista Bala and Belandaregh Bala will continue to learn to improve the way they exploit their lands, to reduce future natural disaster risks,“ says Emanuela Macková. Contour trenches can easily be maintained by the communities with the help of simple shovels. Water will be retained on the hills, which will reduce the risk of landslides and floods.