A slow recovery: Aid for displaced people not trickling down far enough

Qutubabad is among the many makeshift villages that cropped up after 2010 floods.

FAZILPUR:

In the entire settlement, there are only three stone structures. The rest, as far as the eye can see, are tents. “NGOs and other agencies from abroad have come here. They always promise to help and some have even built some houses,” Dai Bibi says as she gestures towards the stone structures. “But after they leave, it is business as usual.”

Stretched out on her charpai in the tent city that is Qutubabad Colony, Bibi says that her family of four children have been living in this camp, along with scores of others, ever since the floods washed away her home in the nearby village of Sikhaniwala.

Qutubabad is just like the hundreds of other makeshift tent villages that cropped up after last year’s floods. However, where many such settlements have been either disbanded or upgraded to proper colonies, this one is a colony only in name.

“It’s not that no one is doing anything for us. There are many people who have come here and promised us food and shelter, and we have received them... for a little while. Then I don’t know where the money goes,” says Dai Bibi.

The chairman of the local Citizen Community Board (CCB), Dr Fakharullah says that the “disappearance” of money has nothing to do with fraud. “It’s more a lack of education,” he says. CCBs are funded by the local government and are responsible for development projects aimed at flood-affected populations. “All these people know is that if someone comes and finds them living here like this, they will get money. They don’t believe in paperwork; they think that someone is stealing their right. That is why when the funding runs out.

The CCBs do not have it all that easy either. As these organisations receive funds from the local government, they must derive their funding from the DCO’s office. “Often, we do not get our money on time, or it is not released and the funds lapse. It is the same with NGOs.”

But back in Qutubabad colony, another factor explains the plight of these people. “Inflation has been driving up costs of building materials. So a Rs200 load of bricks is not as much as it used to be. The donors need to keep this in mind,” says Iqbal, young man whose home was also washed away by the flood over a year ago. “I want to go home, rebuild my house. But without the guarantee that someone will look after my family, I cannot get on with my life.”

In nearby Fazilpur city, however, the sentiment on the street is quite different. Colonies such as Qutubabad are an eyesore, and the locals resent having to play host for so long. “These people have already received grants. They are just living this way so they can get more money,” says a local shopkeeper.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2011.